AN ARMED Forces veteran who thought he was enticing a 12-year-old girl to perform sexual acts over the internet was actually being duped by a fellow online pervert, a court heard.

Douglas Grey, 59, chatted to someone he thought was a girl called ‘Demi’ on Facebook in September 2015, but the account actually belonged to another man.

Prosecutor Abigail Langford told Bradford Crown Court that Grey was caught after police executed a warrant at the address of the other man on April 8 last year after tracking several social media accounts in his name.

One lengthy Facebook conversation, in which the man posed as a 12-year old, was with Grey, and he was arrested at his home address in Grantham Road, Bradford, the following day.

Miss Langford said Grey sent pictures of his genitals to the account as part of “several pages” of messages.

He was said to have asked ‘Demi’ whether she liked older men, and whether she was wearing any underwear.

Grey also asked who he thought was the girl to send intimate pictures of herself and suggested she go outside to expose herself to strangers.

Miss Langford described the conversation as “very sexual, very graphic in nature”.

She added: “This wasn’t a trap. It just so happened that police found the conversations with this defendant.”

When police arrested Grey, they also found a memory stick in his home containing 13 images of child pornography, some featuring children as young as seven.

The defendant initially told officers his Facebook account had been hacked, but later accepted he had committed the offences.

He had pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a girl under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity at an earlier hearing.

Gillian Batts, for Grey, said her client had been “drinking heavily” when he sent the messages, which occurred over a confined period of two days.

She said Grey, described as a man of positive good character with a record in the Armed Forces, had been drinking excessively since the breakdown of a long-term relationship.

She added that in somewhat “exceptional” circumstances, her client was keen to seek help and was “motivated to understand what it was that made him offend in this way”.

On the circumstances of Grey being caught, she said: “Police were pursuing another man and came across this account.

“It is unusual. It was not a vigilante-type case or a sting by police. It was purely by chance.”

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said Grey had many “worrying” health issues, adding that he had coped with post-traumatic stress disorder following his active service.

He said Grey had coped in part by “retreating into isolation and alcoholism”.

He said that when Grey was “very low”, he had “come across a persona by another man in which police were interested”.

Jailing him for eight months, suspended for two years, Judge Durham Hall told Grey he must complete a rehabilitation requirement of up to 90 days.

He said: “You are motivated to try and identify and address this problem. If there is any backsliding or failure on this order, you will end up back in front of me.”

Grey was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years, and must register as a sex offender for the next ten years.

Speaking after the case, a spokesman for the NSPCC said: “Grey’s actions show he is clearly a danger to children, even though in this case it was fortunate that his intended victim wasn’t a real child.

“It is now vital that he receives treatment to minimise any threat he may pose in the future.

“Grey’s behaviour is another example of how predators use social media to prey on vulnerable children so it is vital parents and carers talk to their children about staying safe online.

“Although many social networking sites have a minimum age of 13 we know that children are using these sites earlier. With this in mind, parents need to have conversations with their children highlighting the issue of safety in the digital world in the same way as they would safety in the physical world.”