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Pervert farmer who told ‘boy’ to put on his mother’s underwear avoids jail

Neil Hunter (55) was snared by a so-called paedophile hunter group

Today at 07:20

This is the Co Antrim farmer who told a decoy posing as a 15-year-old boy to put on his mother’s underwear to meet him before being snared by a so-called paedophile hunter group.

Larne man Neil Hunter (55) was handed a four-month jail sentence at Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, on Tuesday over three charges including attempting to meet a child following grooming.

However, he was spared going to prison when District Judge Francis Rafferty suspended the sentence for two years.

Sentencing Hunter and also imposing a five-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order, the judge told him he had “failed to recognise that your actions were child sexual abuse.”

“Lets be clear, that’s precisely what they are and the fact that you are in a degree of denial about your behaviour gives me concern that a probation order is of little import,” said Mr Rafferty.

At an earlier hearing Hunter, from McCareys Loanen in Larne, admitted attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming and attempting to engage a child in sexual communication.

He also admitted possessing extreme pornography on dates between April 23 and 30, last year.

A prosecuting lawyer told the court that on April 30 last year, a man from a so-called paedophile hunter group told police how he had been exchanging messages with Hunter over the course of the preceding week.

Posing as a 15-year-old boy called Lee, the decoy told Hunter his age and the defendant told him “that’s fine” and the messages “quickly became sexual” with the defendant sending sexually explicit images.

The court was also told Hunter asked to meet the boy and “encouraged him to wear his mothers underwear” when they met.

Hunter also detailed the sexual acts he would perform on him when they met and there was an arrangement for them to meet at Larne train station on April 30.

At around 8pm that day, Hunter pulled his car into the car park and was confronted by the decoy who recorded the incident and broadcast it online — but Hunter drove off.

The Public Prosecution Service lawyer said the decoy gave all the materials, footage and his phone to the police but in the meantime, Hunter himself also “made a report to police himself that he was at the train station when he was approached by an unknown male who said that he was making a citizens arrest as he was meeting a 15-year-old boy for sex.”

Officers seized his phone as well and when all the devices were examined, the evidence gathered “corroborated the account provided by the witness.”

Hunter’s phone was also found to contain three pornography images of an extreme nature but when he was questioned, he claimed that as a farmer the images had been sent to him “as a joke.”

He also denied having any sexual interest in children and said he “didn’t intend anything sexual to take place when he met ‘Lee’.”

Defence counsel Neil Moore said father-of-two Hunter had a clear record. He added he had health difficulties which meant he couldn’t work on the family farm and that lead to him going online more and more, resulting in the “wholly bizarre” offences.

In addition to the suspended jail sentence and Sexual Offences Prevention Order, Mr Rafferty also ordered Hunter to sign the police sex offenders register.