A BOLTON man befriended what he thought was a 13-year-old girl online and sent her sexual messages – only to discover he had been contacting an undercover police officer.

Daniel Wynn has been spared jail after being stung over messages over a four month period.

The account he made contact with clearly displayed that it was that of a 13-year-old and made references to being at school, Bolton Crown Court was told.

But using the username BoltonBoy18 Wynn continued to message her, telling her he wanted to lie on her bed and touch her body, the court heard.

He also asked her to send him videos of her engaged in a sexual activity.

Officers traced his device and searched his home on Daisy Street in October 2018, the court was told.

He told officers he had no sexual attraction to young girls and had done this because he was bored.

The 31-year-old confessed to engaging in sexual communication with a child and soliciting sexual content.

The court heard that his offending began in July 2018 and ended when the police arrested him four months later.

Prosecutor Paul Treble said: “The police officer made it clear she was 13.

“For a long time the conversation was relatively innocuous.

“The defendant made some suggestive lines, he suggested he would like to kiss her and liked her body.

“It seems by September the defendant started thinking sexually.

“In November 2018 a police officer entered the house and arrested him.

“They took a number of items, no photographs or inappropriate material was found.”

The court also heard he had no previous convictions and had not been in trouble in the two years since the arrest was made.

Defence counsel Andrew Marsh said the passage of time had been fortunate for his client and conceded that had the crimes come before the court closer to the time he may well have faced an immediate jail sentence.

Imposing a community sentence, Judge Ciaran Rankin said: “You say you have no sexual attraction to children and the cause of your offending was boredom. You could be sentenced to up to four years.

“However I have concluded because of your timely guilty plea, your previous good character and time passed a community order will help you address issues that might be underlying.”

He placed Wynn on the sex offenders’ register for five years, on a community order for three years and ordered him to carry out 25 days of rehabilitation activities under the supervision of the probation service.