After trying to sexually abuse two “girls” who were undercover police officers, a paedophile has been imprisoned.
Between October and December 2022, 56-year-old Darren Stapleton, pretending to be a nine-year-old girl, messaged the first officer two times online.
Agreed on a time and date to meet, Stapleton said he wanted to touch and have sex with her.
More letters were sent, but Stapleton did not reply.
Between December 2022 and January 2023, he started an online communication with the second officer, pretending to be a 13-year-old girl.
He stated he wanted to touch her and send an unsuitable picture of himself.
At his house on Saturday, November 11, 2023, police arrested him and took hard drives, laptops, and cell phones.
There were 463 images of bestiality, 126 obscene images of youngsters, and 942 other images on the devices.
Stapleton, of Beachampstead Road, Great Staughton, near St Neots, was sentenced to four years in jail and another two on licence on Thursday, 30 May, at Cambridge Crown Court.
At a previous hearing, he had entered a guilty plea of trying to organise the commission of a child sex offence, trying to sexually interact with a kid, carrying an extreme pornographic image and three charges of creating indecent images of minors.
Stapleton also received a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and registered on the Sex Offenders Register for a lifetime.