A PAEDOPHILE who was having sexual conversations with schoolgirls has been spared jail due to his ‘difficult start in life’.

Jordan Sharp was encouraging who he thought was a 13-year-old girl to perform sex acts on herself.

But this was actually a decoy from a paedophile hunter group.

He was also having sexualised conversations with a real girl who was aged between 14 and 15.

The 25-year-old appeared before Liverpool Crown Court on Monday after pleading guilty to a range of child sex abuse charges.

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These include attempting to cause/incite a girl to engage in sexual activity, three counts of making indecent photographs of a child, possessing indecent images of a child, possessing extreme pornographic images, engaging in sexual communication with a child, and attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child.

Prosecuting, Geoff Lowe said how Sharp, of Regency Square, Bewsey, was originally arrested in February of this year after his offending was exposed by a woman who was operating as a decoy called Heidi on Wink and WhatsApp.

She was part of a paedophile hunter group and was pretending to be a 13-year-old girl when Sharp contacted her.

Mr Lowe said how Sharp asked her if she had ever sent ‘naughty pictures’ before and encouraged her to perform sex acts on herself.

He also told her to watch porn and sent her links and initiated further sick sexualised conversation.

On February 23, the paedophile hunter group showed up at Sharp’s address and livestreamed the confrontation.

Mr Lowe said how police then attended and arrested the defendant who told officers ‘I have done something stupid’.

Following his arrest, Sharp’s devices were seized, and his iPhone was forensically examined which revealed he had sick images and videos of children of all categories.

It was also discovered that Sharp had been sending sexual images and messages to a real 14 or 15-year-old girl. However, she did not want to make a police statement.

Sharp has no previous convictions.

Concluding, Judge Garrett Byrne said: “This conduct was wholly unacceptable. You knew what you were doing was wrong.

“However, I take into account your good character and accept you had a difficult start in life.

“You have expressed genuine remorse and shame.

“You were not in the best of mental health at the time.”

Sharp was handed a two-year prison sentence which was suspended for two years.

He is also subjected to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and must comply with notification requirements.