A would-be child abuser has been locked up for a year after self-styled ‘paedophile hunters’ cornered him in Maidstone.

Neil Prior, who lives in the town, was arrested after vigilante group The Hunted One approached him in a sting operation.

The 35-year-old used a dating app to arrange sex with a 14-year-old boy. Chat logs posted on the group’s website show Prior, who was fully aware how old the boy was, using sexual language and facilitating the meeting.

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He was then snared outside McDonald’s drive-thru on Barker Road. Video footage taken of the meeting shows Prior initially saying he had no idea who fictional school boy ‘Sam’ is.

After intense questioning he admitted he was there to meet with the boy and had been grooming him for two months, arranging to see him on 10 previous occasions.

He said: “I had no intention of ever sleeping with him, I said we would go as far as he wanted to but it would never have gone that far.”

However, when asked if he would have engaged with oral sex with the boy, he replied: "Maybe".

VIDEO: The Hunted One confronts Prior

He went on to say he “just wanted to be a friend" to the boy and had “never slept with any kids”.

The cameraman can then be heard informing him what he wanted to do was classed as rape and showing him one text message where he said he could “teach the boy things he could only dream of”.

Prior was later arrested and charged with arranging a meeting which would involve the commission of a sexual offence.

At Maidstone Crown Court he was jailed and handed a 10 year sexual harm prevention order. Prior will also spend a decade on the sex offenders register.