A MAN who said he wanted to rape and sexually assault a 14-year-old in the woods has been sentenced to eight months in prison

Tony Morriss, 21, also known as Tony Lamport, was caught outside Basingstoke Hospital last month by the paedeophile hunting group Safeguarding Kids Online after he messaged one of their decoys.

He was confronted when he thought he would be meeting a 14-year-old girl, after telling her that he would take her into the woods, rape her and sexually assault her.

In the confrontation that lasted over 30 minutes and was live streamed to Facebook, Morriss said that he has "messaged loads of girls, young girls and asked them to meet me but I've never actually met them".

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He also claimed that the conversation was "a joke", adding: "I wouldn't have actually done anything."

Appearing at Winchester Crown Court on Wednesday, the 21-year-old was sentenced to eight months in prison for each charge, to be served concurrently.

He will also be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

A spokesperson for Safeguarding Kids Online told the Gazette that their only goal is to "protect children online from internet predators and existing sex offenders and paedophiles".

"We gather water-tight evidence to secure a conviction.

"Throughout the investigation we work day and night with police forces across the UK to provide them all the evidence and statements they require.

"We hope that the work we do as volunteers can ensure that children are safe from online sexual exploitation. Our decoys work tirelessly to ensure that this is done in the correct and appropriate manner to gain convictions."

The video of Morriss' confrontation has, at the time of writing, 81,000 views, 909 shares and almost 3,000 comments.

The spokesperson continued: "We will not stop until they stop preying on our children. It only takes 20 minutes for a child to be groomed online, so please take 10 minutes a day and check your children's devices."