Antonio Pirozzi, a 61-year-old man from Hunwick, County Durham, was caught in an online sting where he believed he was communicating with a 14-year-old girl.
He initially discussed topics like dogs and horses but later sent sexual messages.
He admitted to six offenses, including attempting to incite a child to perform sexual acts.
The court sentenced him to two years in jail, suspended for two years, and he is also required to sign the sex offenders' register for 10 years.
As part of his sentence, a sexual harm prevention order was issued to restrict his access to internet-enabled devices.
The decoy account had been set up on Facebook with a profile picture of a teenager, and the court heard that he first made contact in May 2019.
Police found three indecent images and 70 extreme pornographic images on his devices, along with searches related to sexual images of young teenagers and animals.
His behavior was characterized as 'awful' and 'disgusting' but the judge believed there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation because no other offending had been reported since the five-year-old offense.
This is a probabilistic continent or country-group signal from public name datasets. It is not proof of nationality, ethnicity or personal background.
Likely region signal
Europe
Continent
from Italy
- based on first and surname
75.8%
confidence
First-name region
Europe
Italy
54.6%
Surname region
Europe
Italy
97.0%
Court Outcome
Conviction and Sentencing Details
Sentenced
Detected legal outcome
sexual messages. He admitted to six offenses, including attempting to incite a child to perform sexual acts. The court sentenced him to two years in jail, suspended for two years, and he is also required to sign the sex offenders' regist...
Suspended sentence
two years
The court sentenced him to two years in jail, suspended for two years, and he is also required to sign the sex offenders' register for 10 years
Court order
As part of his sentence, a sexual harm prevention order was issued to restrict his access to internet-enabled devices
