A CARLISLE sex offender is facing a likely jail sentence after paedophile hunters caught him attempting to meet a 14-year-old girl.

Frederick Adam O’Brien, 49, was made the subject of a "citizens' arrest" after he communicated with and tried to meet a person her believed was a 14-year-old girl, the city’s Rickergate Magistrates’ Court was told. 

The defendant, of Glendale Rise, Morton, Carlisle, admitted three offences.

They were: attempting on November 13 to cause or incite a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity; on September 17 attempting to sexually communicate with a child; and on May 29, in breach of a previously imposed sexual harm prevention order, failing to register with police his ownership of a mobile phone.

The attempted communication offences was, say prosecutors, carried out for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification.

Prosecutor Peter Kelly described how the defendant was caught after the intervention of a paedophile hunter group called the Fleetwood Enforcers.

The activists called police on the afternoon of November 13 to say they had carried out a “citizens’ arrest.” “The defendant was expecting to meet a 14-year-old girl,” said Mr Kelly.

“He instead met these people and the police were not aware of this defendant’s activities on the internet.”

Mr Kelly said the defendant , without informing the police as he is required to under the terms of a sexual harm prevention order he had earlier been given, had simply bought himself a second mobile phone.

Such items are freely available and can be bought by anybody for as little as £40 or £50, said the prosecutor.

“I am suggesting that he has escalated his behaviour,” said Mr Kelly. "I suggest that he poses a real risk to members of the public.

"It’s apparent that he wasn’t aware that he was engaging with adults; this a very serious breach and in fact an attempt to meet a child.”

The court heard that last year the defendant admitted three counts of possessing indecent images of children and one count of possessing extreme pornography. He was given a five-month jail term suspended for two years.

Jeff Smith, for O'Brien, conceded that the defendant was "very likely" facing an immediate jail sentence.

After hearing the details, magistrates remanded the defendant in custody and sent his case to Carlisle Crown Court for sentencing on December 13.