Man claimed he was a paedophile hunter after arranging to abuse girl, 5

A MAN who made arrangements to meet and sexually abuse a five-year-old girl in a rented Airbnb property told police who arrested him he was in fact a paedophile hunter trying to catch offenders, a court has heard.

- JASON EVANS

Julian Jakeman had discussed his plans to abuse the girl with someone he believed to be her father but who was an online undercover police officer.

Jakeman maintained his innocence up until the day of trial when he changed his plea - but then went on to repeat the paedophile hunter assertions to the author of his pre-sentence report.

Sending the 39-year-old to prison, a judge described his claims as "laughable" and said the reality was that no meaningful work could be done with him until he accepted the fact he was a paedophile.

Tom Scapens, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that in October 2021 the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit was running an operation to identify online child sex offenders, and as part of that operation an officer was operating an account on the messaging and chat app Kik.

He said Jakeman - who was using the false name Gareth with an account called TidyGuy2021 - contacted the officer in a public forum and their conversation then moved to a private chat.

The court heard Jakeman immediately began discussing sexual matters with the new contact and sent him pictures of a girl whom he falsely claimed to be his 17-year-old daughter and who he said performed oral sex on him. The identity of the girl in the pictures has never been established.