A pervert claimed he tried to groom a 13-year-old girl because he didn’t have a PlayStation and was bored at home, a court heard.

Peter O'Keefe sent sordid messages and a video clip of him performing a sex act, and attempted to get the teenager to do the same.

But he discovered he had been duped by an online paedophile hunter group when they confronted him in the street in Maidstone.

The married 32-year-old hotel kitchen porter was jailed for 12 months today after a judge told him: “I have given anxious consideration as to whether I can follow a recommendation in the pre-sentence report and place you on a sex offender programme.

“But I have concluded these offences are just too serious to be dealt with in that way, and only imprisonment is justified.”

O’Keefe had seen a profile of a girl called Charlotte and contacted her using an app called Kick on his mobile phone, not knowing it was a “decoy” placed by Shadow Hunters UK.

Using the name Big Boy and claiming to be 18, he sent a message on January 11 last year saying “Hello sexy” with a photo of his manhood attached.

Prosecutor Martin Yale told Maidstone Crown Court he engaged in a sexual conversation with a girl he believed to be 13 and incited her to perform sex acts on herself.

“She repeatedly told him she was 13,” said Mr Yale.

“He refers to picturing her in her underwear and imagined having intercourse with her.

“She asked if her age bothered him and he replied: ‘No, of course not.’

He claimed he didn’t have any sexual interest in children.

Members of the paedophile hunter group confronted O’Keefe in Upper Fant Road, in April last year as he was returning home from work.

The police were called and evidence was handed over to officers.

He admitted: “There is a certain thing in my brain. I know it’s wrong.”

“He said there was something wrong with him and was bored at home because he didn’t have a PlayStation now,” said Mr Yale.

He added that there was grooming behaviour and O’Keefe, now living in Voxham, Norwich, Norfolk, lied about his age.

"He said there was something wrong with him and was bored at home because he didn’t have a PlayStation now" - Martin Yale

O’Keefe admitted attempting sexual communication with a child between January 11 and April 4 last year, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity.

Andrew Oliver, defending, said no actual harm had been caused as there was no child.

“He is remorseful,” he said. “He has shown appropriate shame for what he has done. He has deleted all of his social media accounts.

“He has moved away from this area. He wants to start afresh ending the shame he has brought on his family. His wife is expecting a child in the summer.”

Passing sentence, Judge Adele Williams said: “As such no child was harmed. I accept you have taken steps to rehabilitate yourself and to acknowledge you were engaging in this activity for your sexual gratification.”

But the judge added that there had to be a prison sentence.

O’Keefe’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years. A sexual harm prevention order was made and he will be barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.

DC Graham Oliver, of Kent Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team, said: “O’Keefe made persistent and repeated efforts to contact a child for the purposes of his own gratification.

“He has displayed a clear desire to sexually abuse a child and the graphic detail and demands he included in his messages was hugely concerning.

“This case acts as a reminder to parents of children who have mobile phones and tablets to speak to them and help them understand the precautions they should take when using the internet, or the many instant messaging services that are available.

“Children should only communicate with people that they know personally and report any suspicions or inappropriate advances from strangers to their parents, schools or the police.”

An NSPCC spokes man added: "O'Keefe's persistent and predatory actions coupled with his response to the age of the person he was messaging are chilling.

"Although the child in this case wasn’t real the threat he poses to young people is.

"Thanks to a new law the NSPCC campaigned for which came into force in April 2017 it is now an offence for anyone to send a sexual message to a child.

"To give children further protection online, the charity’s Wild West Web campaign is calling on government to introduce a tough independent regulator for social networks to force them to meet consistent child safety measures and hold them to account when they fail."