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A paedophile made the 100 miles journey from West Yorkshire to Newcastle to meet an underage girl, having told her he wanted sex in a hotel room.

Former Next warehouse worker Barry Lester had no clue that the teenage profile was run by a hunter group, using the internet to catch out predators. The 31-year-old contacted the profile on the chat app, MeetMe in October 2021, before asking for her number so they could swap their conversation to WhatsApp, Leeds Crown Court heard.

She told him from the outset that she was just 14, but he turned the conversation sexual, asking if she knew “how sex worked” and talked about having sex in the bath. He sent her explicit pictures of himself and told her he wanted sex with her in a hotel room.

Barry Lester (pictured) was caught out travelling to Newcastle Central Station to meet a young girl. (pic by Google Maps / Northumbria Police Copyright – No Reproduction Without Permission)

He told her he was sterile so did not need to use contraception, prosecutor Ashleigh Metcalfe said. Lester, of Whitmore Street, South Elmsall, arranged to meet her in Newcastle and on October 28, 2021, made the journey north. However, he was met by the hunter group at Newcastle Central Station. He was then arrested at that location. Lester gave a no-comment interview to police.

He later admitted a charge of facilitating a child sex offence, and a charge of breaching the sex offender register rules by failing to notify the authorities of a new bank card he had obtained. He has one previous conviction but for an unrelated matter.

Mitigating, Peter Malone said: “At the time he was at the lowest point ever. He was in a bad relationship. There was the issue of Covid and he was restricted to live with that person. It was the start of severe depression.

“It’s something that he deeply regrets. He is ashamed to have behaved in that manner. It’s quite clear it’s something that should not have happened.”

He said that Malone had been homeless for a spell, and had worked at the Next distribution centre in West Yorkshire, but was now working in a vape shop.

Judge Tahir Khan KC told Lester: “You travelled to Newcastle expecting to meet this girl. It’s clear to me that had it not been for the fact she did not exist, you intended to carry out a child sex offence.

“It’s so serious that only an immediate sentence of custody can be justified.”

He jailed Lester for two years, put him on the sex offender register for 10 years and gave him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to curb his internet use.

Paedophile travelled 100 miles to Newcastle to meet underage girl