An INTERNET predator was caught with vile child abuse images after being trapped by a police undercover operation.

Colin Parry was traced to his home in Ashburton after he started an online conversation with what he thought was a 12-year-old girl.

He sent a picture of himself performing a solo sex act and knocked ten years off his age during a series of chats, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Police found images of a girl aged about five having sex with an adult male when they raided his home and seized his laptop and phone.

Parry, aged 48, of Home Park, Ashburton, admitted attempted sexual communication with a child and two counts of making indecent images of children.

He was ordered to undertake a sex offenders’ treatment programme during 40 days of rehabilitation activities under a three-year community order and to do 100 hours of unpaid work.

He was made subject of a sexual harm prevention order for five years and put on the sex offenders’ register by Judge Timothy Rose.

He told him: ‘You have tried to minimise all of this, saying you do not have a sexual interest in children and are not interested in images of children.

‘You were coming at this from two different areas. You were liaising with a person who purported to be a 12-year-old girl and sending photographs of yourself masturbating and making all manner of sexual comments.

‘You were also in communication with others about pornographic images of very young children being badly abused.’

 Miss Mary McCarthy, prosecuting, said Parry communicated with an undercover police officer posing as a 12-year-old girl between October 2017 and March 2018.

His messages started innocuously but then turned to sex. Police found 13 indecent images on his devices including three which showed children suffering serious abuse by adults.

They had been obtained through online communications with other men on Skype and the images had been downloaded from a shared drop box.

Mr William Parkhill, defending, said there had been a delay of three years caused by the examination of the devices and the pandemic.

He has avoided further offending in that time and the probation report shows they can work with him to prevent any repetition of his behaviour.