Newmarket man given suspended sentence after sting operation

A Newmarket sex offender was caught in a sting organised by a paedophile hunting group.

Fifty-four-year-old Tony Last thought he was messaging a 13-year-old-girl but he was actually talking to a member of the group, who had set up a fake social media account, posing as the teenager.

Ipswich Crown Court heard on Thursday that Last, of Manderston Road, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing in March to attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child between February and May 2020.

When he was first arrested he had denied any wrong doing and said he was only sending the messages with friendship in mind and the possibility of meeting the girl for coffee.

But, he changed his plea after police found messages on his phone which disproved his version of events.

Sentencing Last to nine months' imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Emma Peters told him: "You are now going to have to focus on the fact you are a sexual offender instead of denying it. You have engaged in communications with someone who repeatedly told you she was 13. You continued to engage in those communications. I've seen the videos and it is troubling."

Mitigating, Mr Peers asked the court not to jail Last immediately because had to undergo spinal surgery in the months ahead.

He said he accepted what he did was wholly inappropriate, and that there was a lack of boundaries and a lack of thinking.

Last was also ordered to sign on the sex offenders' register for ten years and was banned from communicating with, living in the same household as, or staying overnight in the same house with anyone under the age of 16.

He has also been ordered to take part in the Horizon rehabilitation programme for men who have committed a sexual offence and are considered to be at risk of re-offending.