When 63-year-old Robert Daye asked four young girls for photographs of them wearing their school uniforms and said he wanted to put a 13-year-old over his knee ‘and spank her’, he did not realise was talking to an online undercover police officer and three paedophile hunter groups.

As a result Daye, of Cold Blow, Narberth appeared before Swansea Crown Court for sentence after pleading guilty to four charges of attempted sexual communication with a child.

Daye began communicating with an online profile of a 13-year-old girl in August 2021. Over the following two weeks he sent a series of messages, which included a picture of his erect penis.

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Helen Randall for the Crown said that Daye also informed the child he wanted to have sex with her and wanted to put her over his knee and spank her.

As a result of the messages, the defendant was arrested on September 4 when answered ‘no comment’ to all questions and was released on bail.

But earlier this summer Daye once again resumed his online activities and began sending messages to what he believed were three 13-year-old girls. These accounts however, were being run by members of groups set up to target sex offenders.

During the conversations with these profiles, the defendant talked about the girls' breasts, described the kinds of sex acts he wanted to perform on them, and again asked for photographs of the children in their school uniforms.

On July 4 members of one of the paedophile hunter groups arranged to meet Daye and after confronting him at the rendezvous, they called the police.

Representing Daye, his solicitor Dan Griffiths said his client had ‘demonstrated an unhealthy interest in young girls’.

Imposing sentence, Judge Geraint Walters told Daye he had had the ‘gall’ to continue offending even whilst under investigation by the police.

With a discount for his guilty pleas, Daye was sentenced to 15 months in prison suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and a Maps for Change sex offenders programme.

He will remain a registered sex offender for the next years 10 years, and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same length of time.