Man caught in livestreamed paedophile sting jailed

Lee Comley was confronted by a vigilante group in July

A man has been jailed for three years after "ugly" disorder broke out when his arrest was streamed live on Facebook during a paedophile sting.

Lee Comley, of Leigh Park in Havant, Hampshire, was arrested on 1 July after a group calling itself the Child Online Safety Team aired their confrontation with him before police arrived.

The judge jailed 39-year-old Comley at Portsmouth Crown Court, where he had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to incite a 14-year-old child into sexual activity.

He also made him subject to a sexual harm prevention order and said that Comley had shown a "lack of insight" into the seriousness of his offending.

At the time of Comley's arrest officers had to be deployed with riot shields after a crowd of about 100 people formed and began chanting and throwing objects.

Hampshire police then imposed a temporary dispersal order to enable officers to use extra powers to break up the gathering.

A dispersal order at the time of arrest covered part of Middle Park Way and surrounding streets

Prosecutor Simon Foster told the court: "The matter had been streamed online and that led to an extremely ugly incident."

He said that Comley had first made contact with the profile of a 14-year-old called Maya, who did not exist but was used as a sting by the vigilante group, through Facebook before moving on to WhatsApp.

Comley started by asking for photos of the girl in her bikini before requesting pictures and videos of her naked and of her carrying out sexual acts.

Emma Easterbrook, defending, said Comley had been held in custody after a previous court hearing out of concern for his well-being because of the previous disorder.

She said: "He has lost his home and his employment; he has been punished above and beyond what we would expect from these courts for this type of behaviour."