A PERVERT made sick sexual requests to a police officer he thought was a 13-year-old girl, a court heard.

A court heard how Gary Soulsby was caught out after he began exchanging messages with a police 'decoy' named Izzy in an online chatroom.

The 39-year-old Barrow man avoided jail at Preston Crown Court after he admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.    

Soulsby, of Helmsley Drive, committed the offence on October 12.

The court heard the conversation took place on an anonymous messaging platform called Chatiw.

Soulsby was said to have used the site under the username 'Old Man UK' and described himself as being 50 and from Aberdeen.

He approached the decoy account, which had the username 'Not In School', and asked 'how old are you?'.

Told she was 13, he replied 'nice' and asked what she was wearing. 

He later expressed a wish to call the girl and perform a sex act while on the phone.

Soulsby asked for the phone number of the girl and rang the phone operated by the police officer using a witheld number.

Carrying out inquiries with the telephone provider, officers managed to track the call to Soulsby.

He was arrested on November 10 at his home and denied he knew the girl was 13.

Mitigating, Richard Vardon said: "The defendant has had a number of ordinary heterosexual relations and is currently in a relationship and has been for four years.

"Plainly there was an element of fantasy.

"There was no intention from the defendant to meet whoever it was he was talking to."

Mr Vardon said Soulsby had got into debt from calling chat lines and had 'issues that need to be addressed'.

He argued there was a 'realistic prospect' of rehabilitation.

The court heard many members of Soulsby's family had chosen to stick by him despite his offending.

Sentencing Soulsby, Judge Graham Knowles QC said: "You chose to break the law for your own sexual excitement.

"Everybody knows that this kind of thing with a girl of 13 is a crime.

"Whatever complications in life, everybody knows doing this is crossing the line."

The judge sentenced Soulsby to 10 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months and 80 hours of unpaid work.

Soulsby was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for seven years and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order to protect children from him.