IT worker groomed ‘girls of 12’

A BORDER Force worker was spared jail yesterday despite admitting to grooming what he thought were two girls aged 12.

In June, Gary Hodgkiss, 48, left his government office in London to head for an illicit rendezvous with children in Middleton, Manchester.

But instead of meeting his intended victims, the married IT consultant was confronted by a vigilante group who had set him up using fake profiles.

The paedophile had sent the fake girls a series of obscene messages online before asking to meet.

Hodgkiss, from Northampton, pleaded guilty at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, to attempting to meet a child following a sexual grooming. He also admitted possessing nearly 250 indecent images.

He was sentenced to 20 months in jail, suspended for two years, and put on a sex offender programme. Judge Bernadette Baxter said she was giving Hodgkiss, whose family have stood by him, a chance to ‘build on the admissions’ he has made.