A PAEDOPHILE who thought he was meeting a 12-year-old girl and going to have sex with her at a nearby hotel was snared outside a railway station.

Daniel Rogers, aged 31, of Medlock Crescent, Bettws, Newport, was handed a suspended prison sentence after being set up by a group called Child Protection Wales.

Jenny Yeo, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court how the defendant thought he had made contact online with a girl called Becky.

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Judge David Wynn Morgan was told 'Becky' repeatedly told Rogers she was 12, but the defendant told her it was OK and that he was 31.

But he was in fact communicating with a decoy account set up by paedophile hunters, using the profile picture of an anonymous girl with her consent.

Mrs Yeo said: “The defendant told her he thought she was sexy and sent her explicit photographs of himself.

“He told her, ‘You can come to mine and nobody will know.’

“She told him she wanted to be a vet. He said he thought she was very beautiful and that, ‘I can become your dad.’

“He told her they could have sex at any time and told her 12 is the best and that they would spend a night at a hotel.

“The defendant told her he loved her and that they could go cycling together.

“They agreed to meet in Newport at a named hotel and said they would meet up at the station.”

Mrs Yeo told the court how Rogers was also entrapped by the group posing as a 13-year-old girl called Nicola while he was using the name ‘BB King’.

She said further explicit conversations took place and the defendant told her: “He would give her sex education that was very different from school.”

Rogers was then identified by Child Protection Wales outside Newport station after arranging to meet ‘Becky’ and held until the police arrived.

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He admitted two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, two counts of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

The offences were committed between March and April.

Stephen Thomas, representing Rogers, said: “He suffers from depression. Little can be said in mitigation. He did plead guilty.

“He has started to take responsibility for what he did. He is 31 with no previous convictions.

“He is a lonely, isolated man.”

Judge Wynn Morgan told Rogers: “You are fortunate that this was a decoy case and fortunately no child was harmed.”

He jailed the defendant for two years, suspended for two years, and ordered him to undertake a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Rogers has to observe a six-month electronically tagged curfew between 9pm and 7am.

He must register as a sex offender for 10 years and was made subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

Rogers also has to pay a victim surcharge of £140.