Warped Featherstone predator had pet name 'Sid' for his genitals as he tried to groom girl over Facebook

Predator Philip Lane, who has previous similar offences in the past, latched onto the girl’s Facebook profile, but which was run by an online hunter group London Overwatch.

The 56-year-old spent five days chatting with the ‘girl’ at the end of July after sending her a friend request. He began asking her questions and even told her he was “old enough to be her grandfather” and could “get done” for talking to her, prosecutor Emily Hassell told Leeds Crown Court this week.

He told her he was sleeping naked and named his penis ‘Sid’, and told her what he wanted to do to her with him. He sent her a photo of his genitals and said he would use a condom so she would not get pregnant.

Land, of Huntwick Drive, Featherstone, told her that in some countries children of her age get married and it should be her choice if she wanted to engage in sexual relations.

He was confronted by paedophile hunters who livestreamed the meeting live over the internet. He was arrested but tried to hide his Samsung mobile phone. He later admitted a charge of attempting to incite a girl under 13 into sexual activity.

Land has seven convictions for 38 offences, including sexual offences with children over the internet. He was already on the sex offender register for life.

Mitigating, Anastasis Tasou conceded he had little to say on Land’s behalf, other than that he “had the good sense to plead guilty as early as he could”.

He added: “He struggles to explain his behaviour. He is a stereotype for this kind of offending and lives a very solitary life. He would like to apologise to the court for his actions.”

Judge Andrew Stubbs KC jailed Land for four years and told him: “You are a cliché for this offending and you’ve done it before. There are many people who sit behind their keyboards and fantasise about what they want to do. You were involved in inciting her in to penetrative activity. You have done it before so it makes your offending much more serious.”