A PERVERT who described himself as a “nice paedo” in messages to young girls, continued attempting to contact children even after he was caught by paedophile hunters.

But his second attempt ended in further arrest as the 12-year-old girl he thought he was grooming was really a decoy police officer.

Bolton Crown Court heard how, on October 26, 2019 paedophile hunter Kirsti Trott, posing as 13-year-old Missi was contacted by Nathan Kennedy on via the children’s section of the website Chat-Avenue.

Kennedy, aged 34, did not hide his intentions, giving himself the user name UK Predator.

Rachel White, prosecuting, said: “The conversation immediately became sexualised and he asked if she had ever been with an older man.”

Conversations continued on WhatsApp with him using sexualised language, sending photographs of his private parts, inviting her to meet in a hotel, wanting to know where she lived so he could book a train ticket and even offering to obtain the morning after pill for her. “He also acknowledged what he was doing was grooming and that he could go to prison because his activities were unlawful,” said Miss White.

Missi introduced Kennedy to a fictitious 13-year-old cousin, called Sophie.

“He asked if he could ‘fool around’ with all three of them,” said Miss White.

Kennedy also contacted Sophie via WhatsApp, discussing sex and offering to buy her clothes and shoes.

Pretending to be someone called Marcus, Kennedy contacted Missi again.

“The conversations were mostly short-lived and mostly concentrated on checking that Missi had not told anyone about her chats with Nathan,” said Miss White.

“He asked about Missi’s mother and asked whether he could drive to her address to have sex with her and her mother.”

On December 6, 2019, paedophile hunters from the Keep Kids Safe organisation visited Kennedy at his then home in Wythenshawe and confronted him after phoning and making arrangements for the delivery of a fictitious parcel. They filmed the encounter, live streaming it on Facebook.

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Police attended and arrested Kennedy and seized his tablet and computer where evidence of his communications with Missi and Sophie were found. He claimed that he had lost his phone and someone else must have had access to his social media accounts.

Kennedy was released while investigations took place but on May 27 this year he contacted 12-year-old ‘Becca’ on Chat-Avenue with the user name Yes Please.

“He said he liked young girls and asked Becca if she was alone,” said Miss White.

“He stated that his last girlfriend had been 12 and asked if her last boyfriend had had sexual intercourse with her.”

But Becca was really an undercover police officer and, Kennedy, believing he was talking to a child, over the next few days continued the chats, offering to buy her gifts.

“He referred to himself as a ‘nice paedo’,” said Miss White, who added that increasingly explicit conversations continued via WhatsApp and Kik Messenger, with Kennedy instructing her to carry out sex acts on herself.

Police traced the messages to Kennedy and he was arrested on July 5 his home in Vickerman Street, Bolton.

The court heard that Kennedy has previous served prison sentences for burglary and robbery.

He pleaded guilty to a total of three counts of attempted sexual communication with a child, two of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity and three offences of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

Adrian Farrow, defending, said: “The defendant acknowledges his attraction to young girls and he does wish to address his offending behaviour.”

He added that Kennedy had lived an isolated and introverted life but has paid dear for his behaviour as he has now lost custody of his young daughter.

Judge Elizabeth Nicholls, who was scathing about the role played by paedophile hunters in Kennedy’s capture, sentenced him to two years and nine months in prison. He was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.

“You knew full well what you were doing was illegal. You obviously have a predilection for children,” she told him.