A 70-year-old man pervert who arranged to meet a 14-year-old child for sex has been spared immediate imprisonment after admitting seven serious child sex offences.

Archie Rawlings, of Lavington Close, Burbage, received a three-year prison sentence suspended for three years.

The court heard Rawlings exchanged sexual messages with the child online in October 2023 and arranged a meeting for sexual activity.

Officers from the Paedophile Online Investigation Team arrested him at his home that December and seized electronic devices.

Forensic examinations uncovered sexual communications with other children and evidence that he had arranged further meetings for sexual activity.

Rawlings also possessed extreme pornography depicting an act likely to cause serious injury to a person’s genitals.

Despite his guilty pleas to seven offences, his sentence was suspended, allowing him to remain in the community subject to its conditions. Breaching those conditions or committing further offences could result in the prison sentence being activated.

He was also given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and made subject to sex offender registration requirements indefinitely.