A MAN has been jailed for attempting to engage in sexual activity with young girls - that were in fact paedophile hunters.

Phillip Bradley, of Leighton Court in Connah's Quay, was in court to be sentenced after being charged with eight offences - four of attempting to engage in a sexual act with a child, two of causing a child to look at sexual imagery, and two of attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence.

He believed the girls he was speaking to, in 2019 and 2020, were 12 and 14 - but they were decoys being used by paedophile hunters.

The court heard that Bradley, 39, attempted to groom the girls, sent them explicit photographs, and arranged two meetings.

When one of the girls said she was too young to have sex, he called her a "mummy's girl" and "chicken".

Judge Nicola Jones, sitting at Caernarfon Crown Court, said there was no way sexual talk between a child and a 39-year-old man could be described as "banter" as the defendant had tried to claim.

Judge Jones said the eighth charge against Bradley was the most serious - it was committed while he was released under investigation but also the 'decoy' child purported to be just 12-years-old.

The judge said: "Broadly speaking you engaged in online sexual communications with adults who were posing as children.

"You went on with this course of action for several months - eventually I am aware that a group who would call themselves paedophile hunters attended at your home address with the view of berating and challenging you. They called the police who attended and arrested you."

The judge referred to 200 pages of online communication between one of the decoys claiming to be 14 in which Bradley turned the conversation to sex. He arranged to meet her in Rochdale for the purpose of having sex, and said he would marry her when she was 16.

The judge added: "In interview when challenged you explained the police that this was all a fantasy and there was no way you would meet up with this child."

On the charge relating to the 12-year-old, which took place in March, 2020, the judge said: "Initially you said that 12 was too young to have sex but then you quickly changed your mind and approach. You sought to persuade her to have sex by offering her alcohol and cannabis. When she refused you called her a mummy's girl and a chicken, quite clearly trying to put pressure upon her to cooperate with you in your requests.

"There came a point where your account that this was banter is clearly nonsense. There can be no circumstance whereby it is appropriate for a 39-year-old man to discuss having sex with a 12-year-old girl."

Bradley was given credit for an early guilty plea and his efforts to deal with his alcohol and drug issues.

The judge also took into account that Bradley was being treated for learning disabilities and mental heath issues, including schizophrenia.

She sentenced him to four years on the lead charge. On the other seven charges, Bradley was given sentences between three months and forty months to run concurrently. Half of the four year sentence will be served in custody, the remainder on licence. He will be subject to a sexual harm order to run indefinitely.

She added: "The sentence which I impose reflects that these are attempts rather than the substantive offences. However, it also reflects that you've made concertive efforts to incite not just one but three children, as you believed them to be, to have sex with you."