A predator who travelled to Kent from his home in Somerset hoping to have sex with an eight-year-old girl has been jailed for 10 years.

Under the sentence for public protection David Collins will have to serve two thirds of the term before parole will be considered. He will be on licence for a further two years.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the 51-year-old pervert contacted two women on the internet he believed were the child’s lesbian parents.

But they turned out to be undercover police officers.

“He describes himself as a child lover, not abuser. We say that was utterly wrong and he was a wannabe child abuser” - Prosecutor John Fitzgerald

Collins placed his profile on a Russian image sharing website calling himself PT Glover, which meant pre-teen girl lover.

Prosecutor John Fitzgerald said Collins sent graphic emails and texts and made phone calls describing what he wanted to do with the girl.

He said he was going to train her for sex and would save himself for her.

“He describes himself as a child lover, not abuser,” said Mr Fitzgerald. “We say that was utterly wrong and he was a wannabe child abuser.”

Collins headed for Maidstone from his home in Highbridge, Somerset, on April 17 this year but was arrested on a slip road of the M4 as he tried to thumb a lift over a 17-hour period.

When searched, he was found to have children’s clothes and DVDs and wine.

Collins claimed he would not have actually gone through with the acts and that he was going to alert the authorities.

He denied arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and arranging or facilitating child pornography but was convicted.

Mr Fitzgerald said at the sentencing hearing on Thursday: “A more significant degree of planning one cannot imagine. It is clear he intended to take photographs of himself having sex with the girl.”

Collins’ name will appear on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely and he is barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.

DC Mikaela Leahy, of Kent Police said: “David Collins made it quite clear that he was absolutely determined to commit very serious sexual offences against children in Kent.

“It was only when faced with the consequences of his actions, that he claimed that the detailed plans and effort that he made was only pretend.

“I am pleased that through the good work of the team we were able to ensure that no child was harmed by Collins, and that he now faces the consequences of his abhorrent desires.

“People must understand that Kent Police will use imagination and the full extent of the legal framework to identify and bring to justice such people in our efforts to protect the most vulnerable in society.”