A PERVERT who was ensnared engaging in sexual chat with girls online has been told by a judge that he “was pretty pathetic”.

Robert Jones sent a fake photograph of himself to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl after he signed into a teen chat room.

On another occasion he struck up a conversation with a 14-year-old girl and invited her to send him photographs and set up a webcam.

But both girls were undercover police officers who had posted under user names.

Jones, 54, of King Street, Wrexham, previously pleaded guilty at Wrexham Magistrates Court to two offences of attempting to communicate with a child under 16 for sexual gratification on October 27 and November 30.

Judge Rhys Rowlands, sitting at Mold Crown Court, sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and told him: “Young girls have quite enough to deal with than dealing with a man like you, a man in his 50s trawling the internet for sexual gratification.

“You believed you were communicating with a 13-year-old girl and then a 14-year-old girl on social media.”

Barrister Anna Pope, prosecuting, said an undercover officer presented himself as the 13-year-old girl in the chat room and received an invitation for a private conversation. Jones claimed he was Mark, aged 32, and he lived in Chester. He sent a photograph purporting to be one of him, although it was of a much younger man.

“He then asked 'Liv' to send him a photograph of her," said Miss Pope, adding that he was aroused.

Jones was traced via the IP address of the image he sent and he was arrested in December but by then he had repeated his behaviour on the same chat site.

On that occasion, he said. He was Chris, aged 35, from Reading, Berkshire, and when the undercover officer, posing as “Madison” said she was 14, he replied: “Cool”.

He asked her to send a photograph so he could masturbate, but the request and another to open a webcam was refused.

At the time he was arrested he admitted having the sexual conversation with the 13-year-old and agreed it was “stupid and bloody wrong”.

Defence barrister Simon Rogers recommended the court follow the pre-sentence report recommendation for a community order or a suspended sentence.