A Hastings man has been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment after being convicted of grooming someone he believed to be a teenage boy, and arranging to meet him for sex.

Steven Haldane, 47, from Cambridge Gardens, Hastings, was sentenced by Judge Charles Kemp at Hove Crown Court on Wednesday April 8, having been convicted after a trial earlier this year of arranging and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity on 19 August last year, and of possession of more than indecent videos and nearly 600 indecent still images of young boys, which were found by police when they searched his flat.

He was given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to last indefinitely, which severely restricts his access to children and the Internet, and he will be a registered sex offender for life.

The first nine years of the 14-year sentence will be served in prison custody, and the other five years will be spent on prison release licence.

The prosecution followed an investigation by detectives in East Sussex about information received from three local people that Haldane was planning to meet a 13-year old boy he had come across via the Internet.

However the 'boy' was a bogus identity created by the trio, who knew Haldane, after they had become suspicious about material and entries they had spotted on his account.

After they had arranged for the 'boy' to meet Haldane, a photographer, outside Hastings railway station on the morning of 19 August, they did not intend to keep the appointment themselves, and referred the matter to the police. Detectives immediately took over the investigation.

Haldane did not keep the appointment but on the same day detectives arrested Haldane and searched his home address, seizing electronic devices which contained the indecent material.

Detective Constable Rob Tillyer said: "We have no evidence that Haldane has currently committed any sex offences against young boys, although he has a previous conviction for a sexual assault on a young boy in Scotland 24 years ago but he made his intentions very clear in the web message exchanges and the court was clearly satisfied that he is a danger to the public.

"We will always follow up information of this kind, and this man will now have no opportunity to endanger the safety of young boys for the foreseeable future.

"We are glad that the people concerned came to us, and the court found that they were acting lawfully. The information they provided was key in the investigation.

"However we do not encourage members of the public to carry out investigations themselves, especially in such a sensitive type of case. They could have jeopardised evidence, hindered chances of prosecution, or most importantly have risked harm to themselves."

At sentencing, Judge Kemp also advised them against taking matters into their own hands, stating that it is better for police to run such an operation.