A Wirral pervert tried to encourage a 13-year-old girl he met on line to meet him for sex - and even wanted to abuse her four-year-old relative.

Fortunately they were fictional characters set up by a paedophile hunting group.

Fantasist Shaun Parrott was consequently snared and arrested by police.

Liverpool Crown Court heard today that since his detection Parrott had tried to engage the help of the child protection charity, Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

But ironically they had told him to sign on via the internet - and “that was against his bail conditions which was to have no internet usage,” said his barrister Rebecca Smith.

Parrott walked free from court after a judge said: “If I send you to prison it will be a punishment for you but it won’t address the underlying factors that give rise to these offences.”

The court heard that Parrott was snared after a member of the Dark Justice group, which specialises in seeking out and exposing paedophiles on the internet, had set up the teenager’s fake profile on the mobile phone dating app Qeep.

Within 20 minutes of posting the fake profile of “Amy” on July 17 along with a picture of an apparently under-age girl Parrott, was in touch using the name “Bimale Rape Me”.

He correctly gave his age as 44 and was not put off when she revealed she was only 13 and lived in Newcastle, said Simon Duncan, prosecuting.

During their lengthy conversations Parrott asked, “Are you a virgin honey or a naughty girl? and when she replied the former he asked if she wanted to have sex with him. He gave his mobile number and they then continued conversations via WhatsApp.

In these he said he would travel to Newcastle to meet her and offered to teach her sex techniques. “She went along with the ruse and at one point he said he loved her and wanted to give her a baby.”

They arranged to meet on August 1 but he then said he could not make it and the next day their conversation “took a more sinister turn” after she asked what he would do if he came angry.

When she did not respond he demanded she “answer me now bitch” and said he would abuse her mum and threatened “your mum’s dead.”

Another meeting was set up and he again made an excuse not to attend but they finally agreed to meet at the Leasowe Castle Hotel, Wallasey, as she was allegedly visiting in the area though this did not happen.

Their conversations ended on September 4 and after being alerted by the paedophile hunter police arrested Parrott on September 7 at his home in Mackenzie Road, Leasowe.

When interviewed he admitted the conversations and said he had not met her as he had “bottled it.”

He said “he knew she was purporting to be 13 and deep down he said he knew it was wrong.”

He said he had sent the threatening messages “as some girls like the bad boy approach” and Mr Duncan said that was the tenor of the messages rather than genuinely threatening.

Parrott also said he had no intention of meeting her.

Parrott, who has no similar convictions, pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a girl to engage in sexual activity and also admitted a new charge of attempting to communicate sexually with a child.

Rebecca Smith, defending, said that Parrott “lives a very isolated life” and finds it difficult to socialise.

“He lives solely in a fantasy world and he has described himself that way to me.”

Judge Neil Flewitt, QC, said that Parrott had used a “disturbing” name on social media and the course of conduct had spanned seven weeks.

He pointed out that although the threats he made may have been “bravado” they would have been deeply disturbing to a 13-year-old girl.

“You are an isolated and inadequate individual. I cannot be sure that you would have ever have carried through the things you spoke about. it may be that was as close as you would have got to a real relationship.”

He sentenced him to 12 months' imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered him to carry out 10 days of rehabilitation activities and attend a sex offenders treatment programme.

Parrot was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order was imposed to run for the same length of time.