Police trap internet pervert who tried to groom 'teenage girl' for sex

Bachelor Steven Ledger, 36, of Leasowe Avenue, Leeds, was arrested at the city's railway station while waiting for the girl he believed was called "Lauren" outside a McDonald's restaurant.

Sending him to prison, Judge Christopher Hardy told obese and balding Ledger at London's Southwark Crown Court: "You engaged her in lurid and suggestive communications. It was graphic in the descriptions of sexual intercourse of various types that you offered."

Full-time carer Ledger was trapped by the Metropolitan Police's Paedophile Unit which initially communicated with him on internet social network site Bebo then via text and phone calls as he posed as an 18-year-old teenager from York.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming, plus seven counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity between May 20 and October 22, last year.

Usha Shergill, prosecuting, told the court: "He indicated he wanted Lauren to travel to Leeds for sexual activity and sexual intercourse and was sexually explicit, lewd and lurid on many occasions.

During his communication with her, Ledger made a series of obscene suggestions and asked if she would be willing to take part is sexual activity.

Ledger also begged the imaginary 13-year-old for phone and text sex and told her she could stay with him as long as a week when they would also indulge in sex after a vodka-drinking session.

When police confronted Ledger outside McDonald's he claimed to be his brother Michael and insisted he was waiting for his 16-year-old girlfriend, from Chesterfield.

He eventually admitted the truth, telling officers it was unlikely a 13-year-old girl would have sex with him after meeting "face to face".

Ledger also confessed to police: "I'm sick in the head. I'm a pervert."

Judge Hardy added: "There are often cases of sad, lonely men living on their own in a flat somewhere and like Mr Ledger the only way they can have any satisfactory contact with other people is electronically.

"There are an increasing number of young children who have unmonitored access to these sort of websites and there are people who target these websites to groom these children."

The judge told first-time offender Ledger, who takes care of his epileptic father: "It must have been a great shock to you when instead of Lauren turning up a police officer did.

"Sadly you are an isolated and lonely man who lives alone in a flat and you are the victim of great social isolation. Young children on the internet are wide-open to exploitation."

The judge also imposed a 10-year Sex Offender Order and Ledger must also sign-on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.