A Suffolk pervert who was caught trying to groom a girl he believed was just 13 by a paedophile hunter “sting” has been jailed for 22 months.

The young girl called “Kelsey”, who 55-year-old Vasile Chindea was chatting up sexually, was actually a fake profile set up by a paedophile hunter group called Strike UK, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Sentencing Chindea at Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday (July 8), Judge David Pugh said Chindea had engaged in sexual discussions with a decoy posing as a 13-year-old girl and had sent her naked pictures of himself.

He accepted that no real child was involved in the offence and no sexual activity had taken place.

Chindea, 55, of Aureole Walk, Newmarket, admitted attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity between November 20 and December 8 2019.

In addition to being jailed, Chindea was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for ten years and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

Judge Pugh said the issue of deportation would be up to the Home Office.

Prosecutor Joanne Eley said that during the online chats, the fake girl had told Chindea she would be visiting her father in Ely.

He told her he would meet her in Newmarket and take her to his home in a taxi.

Phillip Farr, for Chindea, said the offence was an isolated incident and Chindea had expressed remorse.

He said Chindea had been socially isolated since coming to the UK in 2019 and there was no evidence to suggest he was the sort of “predatory offender” sometimes seen by the court.