A PERVERT thought he was on his way to meet an underage girl when he was confronted by paedophile hunters.

Gary Shapland had gone to Asda car park in Worthing in the hope of meeting a girl he believed was “Hayley”, aged “13 or 14”.

But the 50-year-old was rumbled by the hunters group Nameless, and the moment was captured on video.

Shapland tried to claim he had gone to Asda to “do some shopping” but was told by a man filming: “Don’t lie.”

During the exchange, the sex offender was asked what he was doing there, and admitted he wanted to meet a girl who he believed was aged 13 or 14 to “just chill out”.

The group told him they had screenshots of all his conversations with three girls, who were all decoys, and said he had groomed them and built trust over time.

At Lewes Crown Court Shapland was jailed for two years and eight months for 12 offences of grooming and seeking to engage an underage person in sexual activity.

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In the video shared by Nameless, it was revealed how Shapland, a former managing director of a car leasing firm, had sent a fully naked picture of himself to the girls.

Court documents also revealed some of the messages he had sent to the girls. One said how “it was fun to run around naked in his office sometimes and that she could do that too”.

It was revealed how he had lost his virginity to an older woman, and Shapland had claimed to one of the girls he was “looking for a new friend to teach”.

He sent sent a vile sex instruction manual to the girls, and creepy voice messages. The group said Shapland had tried to use different Facebook profiles “to be clever” and said he was “obsessed”.

But he was cornered in the car park, and revealed he had a “miserable” life and suggested he himself had been abused sexually. The hunter group all told him they had been victims of sexual abuse, which is why they seek to keep people safe from predators.

“Why, if you have gone through misery, why would you inflict it on someone else,?” they asked.

“We all have the scars, can you imagine what you would have done if you had met any of those children? We want to stop the next generation of kids becoming damaged goods like we were.

“Children are not sexual playthings, they have a right to a childhood, not to be toyed with by someone with a twisted mentality.”

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The group suggested Shapland had waited outside a school for three hours to “meet a random child you had never met before” to go into his car to try on some tights.

Shapland, of Hertford Road, Worthing, admitted 12 offences which included attempting to communicate with a child for the purpose of committing a sexual offence, and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

He was sentenced and ordered to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.