Sex predator captured on camera being snared by online paedo hunters
Jeremiah Mace believed he was meeting up with a teenage virgin
THIS is the moment a sex predator was snared by online paedophile hunters as he tried to meet up with a 13-year-old girl.
Jeremiah Mace, 65, told the youngster he "wanted her in every way possible" while grooming her over the internet - believing she was a teenage virgin.
But in fact Mace had been sending sickening messages to members of Dark Justice via a decoy profile they set up on dating website Scout.
Around the same time, the pervert was also messaging a vulnerable 15-year-old girl who sent him explicit pictures of herself engaging in a sexual act.
She was left "suicidal" as a result of their contact and scared to walk the streets alone in case she bumped into him.
At Newcastle Crown Court Mace pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child after grooming, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and making indecent photographs of a child.
Judge Robert Adams sentenced him to 10 months imprisonment, suspended for two years with rehabilitation requirements and sex offender group work.
Mace, of Allendale Street, Hetton Le Hole must abide by a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for life and sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.
The judge told Mace: "You were unable to control yourself. "
Judge Adams said Mace's jail sentence could be suspended due to his ill health, including a heart problem, and the fact that sending him to custody would result in no help from professionals to control the risk he poses.
Judge Adams told Mace: "An immediate sentence, although not impossible, would of course, in your circumstances be much more difficult than for someone who is able bodied.
"It would not deal with the ongoing risks you pose as a result if your sexual interests. "
Judge Adams said rehabilitation would provide better public protection in the long term than a short prison sentence would.
Prosecutor Alec Burns told the court Mace had started chatting to members of Dark Justice last August, via a decoy profile they set up on dating website Scout.
Mace was quickly told he was chatting to an underage girl, a 13-year-old virgin.
Despite this, Mace asked if the girl wanted him to "talk naughty" and the conversations turned sickeningly explicit.
"You were unable to control yourself. "
Judge Robert Adams
He described in graphic detail what he would like to do to the child.
Mace said he believed the girl was not ready for full sex but later asked "do you want it".
He was confronted by Dark Justice and captured on camera when he turned up to meet the girl in Newcastle city centre.
The court heard during the unrelated online chats with the 15-year-old girl, Mace discussed taking the youngster's virginity and talked in extremely sexual terms.
She sent him graphic photographs of herself and later told police she felt "ashamed and humiliated" by their contact.
The girl said in a victim impact statement: "At times I felt suicidal, I didn't want to think back to what happened.
"I wanted all of it to go away."
The youngster said she felt "panicked and anxious" while out alone and needed
counselling.
After the hearing, Dark Justice hit out at the "soft sentence" Mace received.
In a statement they said: "Where is the justice for his victim who is scared to walk the streets alone because of him.
"He has been given no real punishment for destroying her life.
"What happened today was not justice."
Julie Clemitson, defending, said Mace is willing to work with professionals to address his issues and contain his future risk.
Mace has never been in trouble before.
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