A MAN who had explicit conversations with a fictitious teenage girl and arranged to meet up with her has been jailed.

Jason Tilbury thought he had been talking to a 15-year-old girl called Holly over social media, sending her lewd images and sexualised conversation.

However, the profile was a fake set up an online child abuse activist group.

In March last year, the 50-year-old arranged to meet up with the teenager and travelled by train from Darlington to Newcastle, where he was detained.

Following an investigation by officers from Durham Constabulary, Tilbury was charged with arranging or facilitating a child sex offence.

He admitted the offence and appeared at Teesside Crown Court this week where he was sentenced to two years and three months in prison.

Tilbury, of Crowborough Road, Hastings, was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was placed on the sex offenders’ register, both for ten years.

A Durham Constabulary spokeswoman said: “Protecting children is a policing priority – when we have information that a child is at risk from potential abuse, we will do everything we can to investigate and protect that child from harm.”