A PENSIONER began talking online to what he thought was a 14-year-old girl only to find it was an undercover police officer posing as a teenager, a court heard.

Peter Rigby, 65, asked the girl to send him pictures of herself and began asking her about her past sexual activity, assuring her “it’s all chat and natural”.

But Rigby, who pleaded guilty to two offences of attempting to engage in sexual conversations with a child, was later identified by officers and arrested at his home address in July 2018.

At Bolton Crown Court, Laura Barbour, prosecuting, said Rigby logged on to a chat room called ‘Just Teens’ on February 25, 2018.

He began messaging another chat room user known as ‘Oliviauk’ who told him he she was 14.

Rigby quickly began asking her for pictures and told the girl he was 52 and married.

Using his true first name, Rigby began steering the conversation in a sexualised direction asking her about boyfriends and how sexually experienced she was.

During the hour long conversation he continued to press her for information.

Police officers arrested him on July 1, 2018 and seized computer equipment for analysis which revealed a second conversation with another chat room user, who told him that she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl, on Skype in February 2016.

During the conversation, which took place in the middle of the night, he told the girl he had “bad thoughts” and asked the girl if she liked dating older men.

Hunter Gray, defending, said Rigby’s behaviour had been “acutely difficult for him and his family” and had “caused him a significant amount of anxiety”.

Mr Gray said Rigby felt “significant remorse” and had tried to address his behaviour by attending Safelives training.

He said Rigby, of Stott Wharf, Leigh, who had no previous convictions, had gone through “two years of torture” since his arrest and although he had told his daughter he had not yet told his son.

Sentencing Rigby, Recorder Jeremy Lasker, said: “This conviction has brought a significant degree of shame on you as it should do.

“If those girls had been 14 how do you think their parents would have felt if some late middle aged man was asking their daughter about penetrative sex?

“It is shocking.”

Rigby was handed a 24 month community order with 25 days of rehabilitation activity and he will also have to carry out 50 hours of unpaid work.

He will also be made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order restricting his use of computers and the internet.