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Samir Rignall, 46, travelled to Hereford to meet a 14-year-old girl after talking to her on an over-18s dating site.
But instead of meeting what he thought was a schoolgirl, he was confronted by paedophile hunter David Poole and his cameraman.
Footage of the sting on March 4 shows Rignall, who is wearing a bright red coat and a flat cap, standing outside the entrance to Hereford railway station.
Rignall was arrested by police who turned up after Mr Poole dialled 999.
He admitted guilty attempting to meet a girl under 16 year of age following grooming at Worcester Crown Court on Monday.
Rignall also admitted attempting to incite a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity as well as breaching of a sexual harm prevention order and failing to comply with notification requirements of sex offenders register.
David, 38, who lives in Hereford, said Rignall told the fake 14-year-old girl he wanted to take her to woodland and sent her pictures of adult sex toys.
The dad-of-three, who launched paedo-hunting group ‘H Division’ after his son was targeted by online perverts, said: ‘I was speaking to him for about four weeks.
‘Straight away he got into it and said he was into BDSM and tying people up.
‘I told him my age and said I was 14 but he said it was not a problem, age doesn’t matter to him and things like that.
‘He kept talking to me for three to four weeks, it was almost 24-7. If I told him I had school and would be home at 4pm, at 4.01pm he would come online.
‘He tried to force a meeting quite quickly but I wasn’t ready with my cameraman so I delayed him for a week.
‘He said he would bring a tent, rope and a bag of sex toys. He wanted to camp out in the woodlands.
‘We arranged to meet on a Saturday at 1pm and we were waiting in the cafe at the train station and saw him get off.
‘He was looking around quite a lot and looked quite shifty. He had a bag with a blanket in and a bag with a tent and a rucksack full of sex toys.
‘I approached him outside the station, he said it wasn’t him and I showed him his profile picture from the dating site. All he said was: “For f**ks sake” and he walked off.
‘He kept walking around the station, probably looking for a train to jump on, and I rang the police and we followed him.‘A police officer turned up in a supermarket car park near the station and we turned the camera off and he was arrested.’
The arrest comes weeks after West Mercia Police issued a warning to David, and fellow paedophile hunters, not to trap suspected perverts.
Detective Chief Inspector Jon Roberts said: ‘While we understand that this is a very emotive subject, the police do not encourage members of the public to pursue their own investigations.
‘This can compromise ongoing police investigations. Identifying alleged paedophiles is best left to the police who can ensure vulnerable victims are protected.’