A pervert turned up at a Newcastle hotel hoping to meet a 14-year-old boy he had been grooming online but was instead greeted by police.
Brett Lambert, described as a "risk-taking sexual thrill seeker", had expressed fears the online profile he had been engaging with was a decoy being run by the police or vigilantes but decided to go ahead with the meet-up anyway. When he checked into a hotel in Newcastle city centre, he found his fears had been correct and the '14-year-old boy' was actually an account set up by police.
Newcastle Crown Court heard it was in May last year that oil rig worker Lambert was travelling home from Aberdeen on a train and went on the Fab Guys website. He got talking to someone whose profile suggested he was 18 but who said he was actually 14.
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Lambert was told the lad was in class and asked for a picture and was sent an image of a boy in a school uniform holding a piece of paper. Lambert refused to send a picture of himself and asked if the boy knew any females who would have a threesome.
Lambert questioned if the profile was being run by a "nonce hunter" but when told they could cancel meeting up he said he was "still up for it and just nervous". He also told the boy to bring a condom.
Lambert arrived at the Easy Hotel, in Newcastle, took his bags to his room and went down to the lobby to meet the boy but was met by police and arrested. He claimed he had a "weird fetish" where he liked to arrange to meet people but just watch them and not engage with them. He added that he thought it was a vigilante group or the police and he was "intrigued who would turn up" and denied having any intention to follow through with any sexual activity.
Lambert, 29, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming and was sentenced to 15 months suspended for two years with 100 hours unpaid work and rehabiliation. He was also ordered to sign the sex offender register and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.
Recorder Andrew Smith told him: "I'm not quite sure why you were stopping off in Newcastle. It seems likely you thought there was some possibility of sexual adventure on your way home."
The judge said Lambert wasn't deliberately seeking out an underage boy but added: "You considered the possibility this was a set up by either a group of vigilantes or indeed a police set up.
"But it seems to me you were a risk taking sexual thrill seeker and put the risk to the back of your mind and you went to meet what you thought was a child. What would've happened next, who knows - maybe you would've withdrawn at the last minute but maybe you would've gone through with it."
He added: "Members of the public are vocal about offences of this type. They take the view people like you should be punished and sent to prison. They would like people to be sent to prison for long periods of time but the difficulty for the court is I have to follow the guidelines and it's not possible to send you to prison for the length of time members of the public sometimes think appropriate.
"If I send you to prison for a short time, little work will be done with you. The probation service can work with people that are prepared to admit what they have done."
The court heard Lambert, of Montgomery Avenue, Lowestoft, Suffolk, is remorseful and "willing to accept help".
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