A MAN sent a picture of his penis and explicit messages to who he thought was a teenage girl on a dating app.

Freeman Sithole, formerly of Llanybydder, messaged a profile which claimed to be a 14-year-old girl on the SweetMeet dating app on August 24. Prosecutor Craig Jones told Swansea Crown Court the account had actually been set up by a member of a paedophile hunter group.

Sithole messaged: ‘Hello. I really liked you. Let’s get to know each other better’.

The decoy told the defendant she was 14, and he replied: ‘You are very young’, before adding: ‘My d*** is very big sweetheart’.

Mr Jones said that a “series of messages of a sexual nature” followed, including Sithole asking if he could have sex with the ‘girl’, asked what year she was in school and made references to her being in school, invited her to visit him, and sent her an image containing sketches of penises.

The conversation moved from the app to WhatsApp, where Sithole asked the ‘girl’ to send pictures of herself, sent her a picture of his penis, referred to having sex with her, and made references to her becoming pregnant – whilst he also tried to videocall the ‘girl’.

Sithole was located by a paedophile hunter group, this was passed on to the police and he was arrested.

The defendant, now of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to attempting to sexually communicate with a child.

“The main point in mitigation is the defendant, at 26, has no previous convictions,” said David Singh, for Sithole.

“He had the good sense to plead guilty.

“The defendant will pay a heavy price as consequence for his offending. That’s likely to be deportation at some point. He’s lost his employment, [and] consequently lost the income that he used to provide for his family in South Africa.”

Mr Singh said that Sithole felt a “sense of isolation” being away from home, but added “I make it clear that this is no excuse for this sort of behaviour”.

Judge Catherine Richards sentenced Sithole to 10 months imprisonment. He must register as a sex offender for 10 years, and was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.