Financial adviser ‘caught by vigilante while trying to groom 15-year-old girl for sex’

'Grooming plot': Hunt, 51, is said to have exchanged hundreds of messages with the girl
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A wealthy financial advisor was caught by a vigilante as he tried to groom a 15-year-old girl for sex by offering her shopping trips and a new mobile phone, a court heard today.

Jonathan Hunt, 51, allegedly started to chatting to the teenager, Holly, on social networking site Badoo before exchanging hundreds of texts on WhatsApp in the space of a week.

He sent sexually explicit messages, telling Holly he would “love to” date her and asked if she would go shopping and “model” clothes for him, the Old Bailey heard.

Hunt, a financial advisor from Rickmansworth, asked for a selfie of the girl in her school uniform, it is said, and boasted he previously had a 16-year-old girlfriend.

But when Hunt went to meet Holly on September 14 last year at Plumstead train station, he discovered the teenage girl he had been messaging was in fact a 36-year-old called Sarah Doherty, a member of online vigilante group Internet Interceptors.

“The messages sent by the defendant to Holly show an ongoing sexual interest in her, a desire to meet her, spend time with her, develop a relationship with her and a willingness to go to her house alone with her”, said prosecutor David Malone.

“At no stage does the defendant suggest despite knowing her age that he would wait until she was 16-years-old, nor indeed does he ever seek to establish when it is that she will turn 16.”

Jurors heard during the chats, Hunt raised concerns that Holly was a character in a sting, asking “I do have one little worry…are you really real?” and suggesting she might be “jailbait” and had never sent him a picture of herself.

But he allegedly pushed through with the plan to meet for sex, telling her: “We’ll do stuff only if and when we are both happy…I wouldn’t want to rush you, if you feel really comfortable and are really happy with me then it would be cool, very cool x.”

Hunt allegedly told the girl: “It would turn me on to see you lying on your bed I bet you look so sexy”, telling her she was “attractive” and if they had sex he would be “gentle”.

Suggesting they go shopping together, Hunt said he wanted to “check out some clothes and you could model them for me – would be fun”. He allegedly added: “Sneak me into the dressing room with you”.

Hunt is also accused of telling Holly: “Bet you look sexy in your school uniform.”

After Ms Doherty confronted Hunt, she held him at the station until police officers arrived and then handed over a dossier of the chats she allegedly had with Hunt.

He denied to her that he was grooming Holly for sex, and then stayed silent in a police interview, jurors heard.

Hunt, of Shepherds Way, Rickmansworth, denies arranging to meet a female aged under 16 following grooming. The trial continues.

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