Paedophile armed with a hunting knife turned up at crematorium expecting to meet girl, 11, for sex

A paedophile turned up at a crematorium to meet an 11-year-old girl for sex. Nicholas Tarbard was in possession of a hunting knife, a screwdriver, two pairs of scissors, sex toys, and a condom as he waited for the child.

A court was told he thought he had been talking to three girls aged 11, 12, and 13 on social media. Tarbard had several conversations with each of them, many of a sexual nature, and he had requested inappropriate images of them. He had even sent indecent images of himself during the conversations.

But he had actually been snared by paedophile hunters. On Sunday July 18th 2021, Tarbard had arranged to meet up with who he thought to be the youngest girl, aged 11, at Macclesfield Crematorium. However, unbeknown to Tarbard, he had actually been speaking online to three adults acting as decoys.

As he was was waiting at the Crematorium he was confronted by the decoys who then called police. Tarbard, 35, of no fixed address, appeared at Chester Crown Court where he was sentenced to four years imprisonment and four years on licence after pleading guilty to four counts of attempting to engage sexual communication with child, attempt to arrange to facilitate child sex offence at an earlier hearing.

In a statement Cheshire Constabulary said: "When officers arrived at scene, they searched Tarbard who was in possession of a hunting knife, a screwdriver, two pairs of scissors, sex toys and a condom. During questioning, he answered no comment to everything posed to him by officers, even when shown messages that he had sent to the three different decoys.

"He was arrested and subsequently charged with arranging the commission of a child sex offence and possession of a bladed article in a public place. As well as being