Moment pervert fitness coach, 36, claims HE'S a paedophile hunter when he's confronted by the vigilantes he unwittingly told he was 'into children from birth upwards' during online chat

This is the bizarre moment a pervert who boasted he was into children from 'birth and upwards' claimed he was a successful paedophile hunter when confronted on camera.

John Wray, already a convicted sex offender, offered to take two 14-year-old girls shopping for 'underwear and bikinis' in sickening online chats.

He also said their friends, aged as young as nine, could join in and dance topless for him in a hot tub.

The 36-year-old fitness coach, who was using the alias name James Craig, said during conversations he was 'into birth and upwards when it came to images and videos'.

He bragged that he was a member of online paedophile chatrooms where footage of child abuse was shared as a condition of membership.

But Newcastle Crown Court heard the online profiles Wray was talking to in July were being run by an undercover paedophile hunter organisation named The Soloceptors/Soul Survivors.

Bizarrely, when the group confronted Wray at his home, he claimed he was a paedophile hunter himself and had been responsible for putting 500 perverts behind bars.

However, the Soloceptors were not convinced by his outlandish claims and drafted in the police.

As a result, Wray, of Burton Street, Byker, Newcastle, is now starting a sentence of five years and four months behind bars.

During a video of the confrontation with the Soloceptors, Wray claimed he had been trying to 'trap' paedophiles and that his behaviour, and fake name, had been part of his 'cover'.

The pervert claimed: 'I'm trying to trap them. The way we do things, how we do it is we try to make sure they slip up and tell us things, it's how we do it.

'I know it's not how you do it, our way of doing things would be classed in some cases as entrapment.

'We get them to admit things that they're up to, that's what we're about.'

John Wray, already a convicted sex offender, offered to take two 14-year-old girls shopping for 'underwear and bikinis' in sickening online chats

Wray claimed he and his 'decoys' had been responsible for catching 500 perverts in the past and had been running his group, called Scarlettos, for 13 years.

The court heard when police arrived they arrested Wray and his phone revealed he was a member of child exploitation groups, where membership was granted through the exchange of abuse images.

He also had a 50 second video clip showing shocking sexual abuse of children.

Wray, who has convictions for engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and making indecent photos of children, pleaded guilty to three offences of breach of a sexual harm prevention order, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and making an indecent photograph of a child.

Miss Recorder Allison Hunter QC told him: 'You demonstrate a complete disregard for court orders and lack of sexual boundaries where the rights and welfare of children are concerned in order to indulge in your own deviant interests and activities.'

Tony Cornberg, defending, said Wray's conversations were 'examples of fantasy' and there was no physical contact involved.

Mr Cornberg said the offences happened during the Coronavirus lockdown and added: 'Maybe boredom lies behind some of the offending.'

Mr Cornberg said Wray has lost his business and jeopardised family relationships through his behaviour and recognises 'treatment is the way forward'.