A MAN who travelled to Newport to meet a 14-year-old ‘girl’, only to be confronted by a 'paedophile hunting group' - has been jailed.

Adrian Simut, 35, of Stanford Road in Norbury, London, lied about his age to a Newport mum who was pretending to be the 14-year-old girl, before arranging to meet her at the city train station.

Simut had earlier pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

David Pugh, prosecuting at Newport Crown Court, said Simut was met by a member of the group Justice Hunters at the train station, previously known as Petronus, who then contacted the police.

Simut was in possession of condoms, tablets for erectile dysfunction and alcohol, which the prosecution said showed he intended to have sex with the 'girl'.

Mr Pugh, prosecuting, said Simut had first contacted the Newport mum posing as a child on messaging app 'Kik' on June 7.

Simut was told the ‘girl’ was 14-years-old on June 9, and the 34-year-old defendant lied, saying he was 27.

Romanian national Simut sent indecent photos of himself and commented that the ‘girl’ looked “cute and beautiful".

He asked if the ‘girl’ had other friends who would like to get involved, the court heard, and another member of the ‘hunting’ group posed as another child.

Gareth Williams, defending, said Simut had no previous convictions and was of good previous character.

He said it would have been impossible for Simut to carry out the act as the child did not exist.

Judge Michael Fitton QC sentenced Simut to 36 months in jail, concurrent on all three charges.

A sexual harm prevention order was also made.

Speaking after the sentencing, the woman who posed as the girl said she was “disgusted” by the way Simut had behaved.

“The videos he sent were quite gross,” the Newport mum said, adding that messages on Kik became “explicitly worse” over the 16 day period. She added she would have liked the sentence to be longer.

A survivor of child grooming herself, the Newport mum hopes Justice Hunters can protect children from online targeting.

The group aims to educate parents and children about the issue.