Ieuan Wyn Williams thought he was chatting online to three boys, two aged 12 and one aged 14, Mold Crown Court heard.

But the 51-year-old was in fact talking to a member of a paedophile hunter group in September this year.

Williams, of Ffordd Lannerch, Penycae, Wrexham , sent them messages, invited them to meet up and to perform sex acts, prosecutor Ffion Tomos said.

Williams admitted three charges of attempting to incite children to engage in sexual activity and a further charge of attempting to arrange or facilitate a sexual offence.

The offences occurred between September 17-20 this year.

Ms Tomos said the three fake children all asked Williams if he was okay with their age and he replied “yes” and to one of them “Nobody has to know”.

“The paedophile hunters group turned up at his address and confronted him,” the prosecutor said.

“The police arrived and neighbours were also out, given he was a vulnerable person, and he was arrested.

“In interview in a prepared statement Williams said he only had contact with people by talking to them on the internet and he would never engage in sex with a child”, said Ms Tomos.

Sentencing Williams, Judge Niclas Parry said: “This is a desperately sad but also worrying case.”

He added: “Mercifully there were no victims.

“But you continued despite the warnings you were dealing with children.

“I accept that you are genuinely remorseful and sorry.”

Judge Parry said Williams had been rendered homeless by the reaction of the local community.

He was given a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years, where he can have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16 and is not allowed to delete any internet history.