Pervert arrested at NURSERY where he worked as a cook after he was caught sending sick messages to 'girls'

A paedophile sent disgusting messages to what he thought were, 11, 12 and 13-year-old ‘girls’. They were actually adult decoys, acting on behalf of a ‘paedo-hunter’ group and the North West Organised Crime Squad.

In the chats, across different social media platforms, James Barber, 56, befriended, groomed and spoke to the ‘girls’ for a number of days. He told them he was looking for ‘young, sexy girls’, said he ‘liked innocence’ and added that ‘young girls just make me excited’.

Barber was arrested at a nursery in Altrincham where he worked as a cook.

The 56-year-old, of no fixed abode, also sent indecent images of himself to the ‘children’.

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He admitted making indecent images of children after a number of vile pictures were found on his phone, and admitted attempting to engage in sexualised conversations with children and attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity.

Yesterday (May 16) at Manchester Crown Court, he was handed a suspended sentence.

Prosecutor Tom Challinor said that in May 2021, officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Squad deployed one of its specially trained officers to pose as a 12-year-old girl online.

Between May 18 and July 1, Barber and the girl spoke on ‘Fast Chat’, with her initially telling him she was 12.

“He proceeded to attempt to groom her and engaged in sexual conversations, telling her he liked ‘young, sexy girls’,” Mr Challinor said. “He said he wanted to touch her bottom and cuddle her and look at one another naked.”

Barber also said he wanted to take her somewhere private and later sent images of himself.

On July 12 he was arrested at his former place of work, a nursery in Altrincham, where