A sex offender who sent a video of himself performing a sex act to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl was arrested after being caught in a sting by paedophile hunters.

William Brune was trapped by the group Confronted & Caught after he thought he was going to meet a girl he had befriended online.

Prosecutor Catherine Picardo told Leicester Crown Court how Brune had been duped by the group, who set up two fake Facebook accounts for girls aged 17 and 13.

She said Brune was arrested by police after he went to meet the 17-year-old in Loughborough.

The paedophile hunters group put a video online of them meeting Brune and waiting for police to turn up.

Ms Picardo said that Brune had sent the 13-year-old girl, called Maddie, an explicit picture of himself and a video of him performing a sex act.

He asked her to send naked photographs of herself.

Brune, whose address was given in court as Wharncliffe Road, Loughborough, admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child under the age of 16.

The court heard that Brune was jailed in 2012 for a sexual offence involving a 13-year-old girl.

What was said in defence of Brune?

Andrew Howarth, defending, said that when his client served four years for the child sex offence in 2012 he received no help.

He said: “This is a man who admits he is sexually attracted to 13-year-old girls. That is quite an unusual admission.

“He clearly accepts that what he has done is wrong.

“Throughout his prison sentence he did not receive any therapeutic help. He was not put on any sex offenders programme as he was moved from prison to prison.”

Mr Howarth said that Brune had to leave Market Harborough after being sent to prison for the sex offence in 2012.

He said that Brune moved to Loughborough but has had to move again after the video of him being caught in a sting by a paedophile hunter group was broadcast online.

“He was advised to move by police,” he said. “He has lost his job too.”

Mr Howarth said that Brune’s father had suffered a stroke and he had moved in with him to be his carer.

What the judge said

Judge Timothy Spencer QC said: “You have lost your job, you have lost your accommodation and lost whatever reputation you had rebuilt since being released from prison.

“You have thrown it all away and for what? What you have done is deeply shameful.”

He said he was not sending Brune to jail because he is his father’s carer.

Brune, who is on the sex offenders register, was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Members of Brune’s family wept when the sentence was announced.

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