A would-be police officer was caught out by the notorious ‘paedophile hunter’ featured on TV after he duped him into believing he was a teenage boy.
Kristian Kirk, of Oswaldtwistle, sent numerous sexual text messages to Stinson Hunter between August 1 and August 24 last year after meeting through the social media site Grindr.
The messages included Kirk referring to Stinson, who he believed was a 14-year-old, as ‘sexy boy’ and asking if he ‘liked lads in white socks’.
Kirk pleaded guilty at Burnley Crown Court to attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence.
Kirk, 25, told Hunter that he had just qualified from policing studies at university and was hoping to join the force ‘when they started recruiting’.
During the conversations he requested Stinson’s phone number, asked if he used Skype and WhatsApp, and also tried to meet up with him in Oswaldtwistle.
When Stinson said that his ‘mum’ did not like him going on social media Kirk replied ‘Oh dear lol have to keep me a secret then’.
Kirk attended Accrington police station on August 25 after Stinson confessed his true identity and posted Kirk’s messages, photograph and a map of his address on Facebook and Twitter.
The Spar shop worker will now be made subject to police notification requirements, the terms of which will be determined at his sentencing hearing at the court on June 26.
Daniel Prowse, defending, told the court: “The basis of plea in fact reflects the content of his online conversations which in effect is all of the evidence in this case.”
Mr Prowse said Kirk was of previous good character and applied to the court to change his bail conditions to accommodate his work.
He said: “The defendant is currently subject to a number of bail conditions one of which is a curfew between 11pm and 6am daily.
“He is employed by a Spar shop. His current hours of employment are Sundays, that’s the only days he works and starts at 6.30am and he is being asked to work mid-week shifts as well those would begin at 6am.”
Judge Jonathan Gibson allowed the bail to be altered from 11am to 5am and ordered an ‘all options’ pre-sentence report.
Mr Hunter’s vigilante TV documentary ‘The Paedophile Hunter’ has won a Royal Television Programme award.
