Pedophile who traveled to have sex with 13-year-old attempts to escape after he's caught by pedophile hunters

John Boughton, 38, travelled 100 miles from his home in Leeds to Newcastle in the middle of the night, thinking he was going to meet a 13-year-old girl he had sexually groomed to have sex with her. Unknown to him, pedophile hunters were on to him and were waiting. 
Dark Justice, an undercover organisation that hunts pedophiles, pretended to be the teenager online and told him her parents were away.

When Boughton arrived in the Elswick area of the city at around 2am on October 28, he was confronted by members of the group who then phoned the police.

Boughton was filmed trying to escape the moment it became clear that officers were on their way to arrest him. He managed to reach his car a few streets away but the police caught up with him a short while later. He has now been jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. At his sentencing at Leeds Crown Court last week, Boughton was also handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

Speaking on the incident, a member of Dark Justice said:

"This man is dangerous and we are glad he has been locked up, but we think he should have been given a longer sentence. It was clear that he had every intention of engaging in sexual activity with a child. As soon as we told him the girl's parents had gone away he drove straight up to Newcastle from Leeds. He'd obviously researched the area as he'd left his car a few streets away. It was quite eerie when we met him as it was so early in the morning and the streets were completely deserted. At one point we thought he might have had a knife as he put his hand in his pocket. We gave chase when he ran away but didn't manage to catch up with him. He didn't get far before he was stopped by the police. In our view the fact he ran away demonstrates how cowardly he is, and we think he should have been given a longer sentence because of it."