A sex offender who tried to entice a schoolboy has been jailed.
Ian Potts, aged 36, targeted the teenager with a string of social media messages after meeting him in August 2020.
He continued to entice the boy into sexual activity even after learning that he was under the age of consent.
Unbeknownst to Potts, his private conversations with the boy became known to an on-line activist group, who took over the exchanges and started building evidence.
Potts was arrested several days later and claimed to officers that he believed the boy was aged over 16 at the time the messages were sent. He further claimed to have not read and accidentally deleted messages stating the boy’s true age.
He later pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and two counts of attempting to incite sexual activity with a child.
Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday he was jailed for two years and eight months.
Potts, of Westover Road, Bournemouth, was also placed on the sex offenders’ register and made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order which will restrict his activities when he is released.
Detective Constable Kimberley Priestley, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Potts knowingly tried to entice an impressionable child into sex and has quite rightly been jailed as a result.
“Keeping children safe from harm means keeping them safe from people like Potts who attempt to prey on them on-line where they think nobody can see what they are doing.
“I hope this case serves as a warning to others about the consequences of such behaviour.”
