A paedophile who made sexual advances towards what he thought was a 14-year-old girl has been jailed. 

Grant Brownlow, 36, began speaking to a decoy from an online child activist group in October 2020. 

The decoy told Brownlow they were 14 and he turned the conversation sexual.   

Brownlow did not speak with the decoy from December 2020 to July 2021 but started again that month. 

On November 21, 2021, the activist group confronted Brownlow at his home in March and called police. 

A search of Brownlow’s devices also uncovered five extreme images involving animals. 

On Friday (31 May), at Cambridge Crown Court, Brownlow, of Bronze Street, March, was jailed for four years and six months.  

He had been found guilty of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, and earlier pleading guilty to possessing an extreme pornographic image. 

Brownlow was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life and handed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order. 

DC Caroline Murphy said: “Brownlow was clearly told by the group he was talking to a 14-year-old girl, so only he can say why he continued making sexual advances.  

“There was clear intent there to commit a sexual offence so young people will be safer with him behind bars.”