Disgraced pharmacist groomed '14-year-old'

SHARED NAKED PHOTO WITH 'FAKE' TEEN BOY

- By POPPY KENNEDY

A DISGRACED pharmacist attempted to meet a '14-year-old boy' after days of messaging on Snapchat.

Tony O'Neill sent sexual messages to who he thought was a 14-year-old boy and told officers after his arrest that he felt a "thrill from knowing he still had it".

But the 45-year-old, who opened Escape Games with Peaky Blinders and Hogwarts-themed rooms in Middlesbrough, was actually speaking to a Cleveland Police decoy and was arrested at his place of work, where he had agreed to meet the child, last May.

During a sentencing hearing at Teesside Crown Court, Saba Shan, prosecuting, read dozens of messages shared between the 45-year-old and the "underage teenage", referred to as J, sent over the course of almost two weeks in May last year.

O'Neill had begun messaging J on FabGuys, an adult dating website for gay men with a minimum age limit of 18.