A 71-year-old who wanted to do "sexy things" with a young teenager was caught by paedophile hunters after he turned up at a hotel to meet the girl.
Kevin Woodhouse began communicating online with a teen who he thought was 14 years old, Norwich Crown Court heard.
Chris Youell, prosecuting, said the child, who was in fact an adult member of an online child abuse activist group, made it known to him she was a 14-year-old girl.
Mr Youell said Woodhouse, who did not hide his age, engaged in "sexualised chat" with the victim online before the conversations moved to WhatsApp.
Woodhouse asked her "if she had any boobs yet" and whether she wanted "to be rude with me". He also said they "could do sexy things together" and sent her a picture of his genitals.
He also asked if he could see her body and made arrangements to try and meet the girl, Mr Youell added.
Woodhouse agreed to meet the girl outside a hotel on Great Yarmouth's seafront, but when he did the "paedophile hunter group were ready for him".
Police were contacted and Woodhouse was arrested following the meeting on August 29 2024.
Mr Youell said it was "sustained and persistent" behaviour by Woodhouse who he said had attempted to groom the girl.
The defendant, of Main Road, Filby, near Yarmouth, appeared at court for sentencing on Tuesday (June 9) after he previously admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to meet a girl under 16 following grooming.
Both offences occurred between August 26 2024 and August 29 2024.
Recorder John Hardy said Woodhouse had been "intending to have sex" with the teen he had sought to meet.
"That's fundamentally wrong and quite rightly criminalised by our law," he said.
Giving him credit for his pleas, Recorder Hardy imposed a sentence of 12 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.
Rob Pollington, mitigating, said Woodhouse was an individual "blighted by the notion of rejection" since his wife walked out on him a number of years ago.
He said Woodhouse found himself online and wanting to chat to people and doing so to "anyone who chats back to him".
Mr Pollington said Woodhouse was not an individual seeking out teens online.
"This is an elderly man making catastrophically poor decisions because of his loneliness and fear of rejection," he said.
He insisted Woodhouse, who had not offended since, and was ashamed of and embarrassed by the position he finds himself in.
Woodhouse was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work as well as 10 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR) days.
In addition he was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) for 10 years and put on the Sex Offenders' Register, also for 10 years.
