A PAEDOPHILE was arrested in a supermarket car park after he travelled there to meet what he believed was a 12-year-old schoolboy.

Macauley Webb, 24, from Newport, was caught in a police sting during which an undercover officer posed as a child under a fake profile.

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He was arrested at Morrisons in Cwmbran after going to the car park to meet the ‘boy’ for the opportunity of having sex with him.

Joshua Scouller, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court how Webb had been duped by a police officer masquerading as a 12-year-old from Cwmbran.

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Contact between the two began on dating website Grindr before they moved on to communicating on WhatsApp.

“During the exchanges, Mr Webb asked him to be his boyfriend,” Mr Scouller said.

The defendant then began ask ‘Romeo’ if he would perform sex acts on him before their meeting at Morrisons was arranged for May 18.

Webb, of Gaer Vale, pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child and attempting to meet a 12-year-old boy following sexual grooming.

He has 11 previous convictions for 27 offences.

The defendant was convicted of making indecent images of children in 2018 and possessing indecent images of children in 2016.

Gareth Williams, mitigating, told Judge Richard Williams: “It is a very sad individual who is before your honour and a very damaged one.”

Judge Williams said to Webb: “This represents a serious escalation in your paedophilia.”

The defendant, he added, had been assessed as posing a “high risk of serious harm” to children.

He was made the subject of an eight-year extended jail sentence for the protection of the public.

That sentence will be made up of a four-year custodial term plus an extended licence period of four years.

Webb will have to register as a sex offender for life and pay a £190 victim surcharge following his release from prison.