A judge has told a 73-year-old pervert that "children deserve to be protected from people like him" after he attempted to meet a 13 year old girl for sex.

Peter Durrant, of Blenheim Close, Leigh, was jailed yesterday for two years and four months after a court heard he brought a "deeply disturbing" kit to meet the girl.

He had travelled to Ipswich after several weeks of online chats with an undercover police officer posing as the step father of a teenager called “Riley”, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

During the chat, which started in October last year, the undercover officer told Durrant that he had had sexual contact with the girl and that he’d kept it quiet from his girlfriend, said David Baird, prosecuting.

Durrant told the officer what he wanted to do to the girl and said “the younger the better”.

He also said he was willing to travel and said he would bring with him a kit containing rope, sex toys and a box of chocolates, said Mr Baird.

He arranged to meet “Riley” in a tea room in a park in September last year and when he got there he was arrested by police.

When he was interviewed by police he made full admissions and said he would only have had sex with the girl if she consented and wouldn’t had done anything she hadn’t consented to.

Jailing Peter Durrant, Judge Emma Peters said: “Children need to be protected from people like you who make arrangements to abuse them.”

She said the offence had involved considerable planning and described the contents of the bag for life as “deeply disturbing.”

Judge Peters said Durrant appeared to lead a relatively lonely life and had been a hard worker.

Durrant admitted arranging or facilitating sexual activity with a child between August and September last year.

In addition to being jailed he 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.

 

Simon Gladwell, mitigating for Durrant, said his client had no previous convictions and was “very sorry” for his actions.