A 49-YEAR-OLD fantasist claimed to an online paedophile hunter that local parents saw him as a “superhero” who’d prevented a woman from being raped a court heard on Friday.

But the man who portrayed himself as having “angel eyes” is now starting a two-year jail term after he admitted attempting to arrange a child sex offence and possessing 165 extreme porn images involving animals.

Caernarfon crown court was told Richard Roberts had been confronted by vigilantes at his home in Lon Ogwen, Bangor, after messaging a woman who set up a fake Facebook profile for a girl of twelve.

Prosecutor Ffion Tomos said Roberts told her he wanted to be the first person she kissed, explained what “horny” meant, and discussed sex with her.

“The conversation developed. The defendant wanted to travel to Liverpool to meet with that twelve-year-old.

He said they would stay together in a tent,” counsel said.

Roberts also suggested he could live with the “girl” and her mother in Liverpool and she could sneak in his bed and have sex with him, Miss Tomos alleged. He sought snaps of the youngster in the shower.

Roberts told police, after the vigilantes confronted him in January 2019, that he knew it was a paedophile hunter online and his conversation had been a “wind up.” But three mobile phones were examined and one had a screen-save image of the online “decoy.”

Matthew Curtis, defending, said Roberts had pleaded guilty to the offences. “This defendant plainly has been, perhaps still is, living a life in a bit of a fantasy about his own circumstances,” the barrister remarked. “We are dealing with a complex individual.”

Roberts was ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years and a sexual harm prevention order was made for the same period.

Judge Huw Rees told him the intended recipient of his “gravely unhealthy sexual attention” was a child of twelve.

“Your perverted interests are further displayed in your possession of extreme pornographic images,” the judge declared.

Roberts had shown “distorted sexual thoughts,” he added