Sex offender caught on camera being snared on way to meet ‘girl, 13’

He told the paedophile hunters: 'I can't help it. It's the way I am.'

A convicted sex offender who was caught by paedophile hunters posing as an underage girl has been jailed.

Edward Salt, 27, thought he was chatting to three girls under the age of 13 but was really being duped by members of Dark Justice and Guardians of the North.

He then arranged to meet with one of the children but was instead met by the group who had been waiting for him to arrive.

There, he defended his actions by telling them: ‘I can’t help it. It’s the way I am.’

During conversations with the fake profiles, Salt talked about fetishes, which included references to urination and defecation, and also sent a picture of his exposed private parts.

Prosecutor Mark Guiliani told Newcastle Crown Court the content of the graphic conversations was ‘vulgar’.

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Salt, who was jailed in 2016 for offences including inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, was arrested after he arranged to meet the ‘teenager’ from a fake profile last summer.

At the time he told police he had been ‘stupid’, had been drinking and ‘just wanted someone to talk to’.

He admitted three offences of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and one of attempting to meet a child after grooming.

Salt was sentenced to 30 months behind bars with lifelong sexual harm prevention order and sex offender registration.

Judge Tim Gittins told him: ‘You were seeking out young children, females in particular, for the purposes of your sexual gratification.

‘Your real purpose in contacting them wasn’t to engage with children but to engage in discussion in relation to fetish and scatological behaviour.’

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Judge Gittins added that Salt, of Dunholme Road, Newcastle, engaged in the conversations despite ‘repeated references’ to the young age of the girls on the profiles.

‘The three separate profiles you believed to be children under the age of 16, in fact were being operated by members of the groups Dark Justice and Guardians of the North,’ he said.

Geoff Knowles, defending, said Salt, who has mental health problems and a troubled past, is now motivated to change his behaviour.