WATCH: See Telford sex case bookie caught in 'sting' by vigilante paedophile hunter
A disgraced Shropshire solicitor, who now works as a bookie, has been found guilty of planning to meet a 13-year-old girl whom he had chatted up on the internet.
It took a jury at Shrewsbury Crown Court just an hour yesterday to convict 51-year-old Martin Scott Currier.
Recorder Martin Butterworth adjourned sentence for reports until next month and warned Currier that he could face a prison term. Following the verdict the jury heard that Currier had previously worked as a solicitor in Telford, but was struck off in 2002 after he was jailed for fraud having obtained almost £50,000 by forging a client's will.
At court yesterday Currier, of St Marks Drive, Wellington, was allowed bail and will be sentenced on March 26.
Currier, who had denied a single charge of attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming, had found himself the centre of a "sting" by a vigilante targeting alleged paedophiles.
The court heard Currier had travelled to a house in Nuneaton, but did not find the teenager he had expected to meet.
Instead, he was confronted by a "sting" organisation, which sets out to trap those grooming children for sex.
Messages and texts between Currier and "Jodie" were read to the jury.
A video was also shown of the moment he walked into the Nuneaton house to be confronted by Stinson Hunter, who later handed the recording to police.
Mr Hunter, who describes himself as an undercover journalist, runs an organisation which sets out to uncover people who prey on children on the internet.
Currier had used the Badoo dating and friendship social network site, and in his first message told "Jodie" that she was a "very pretty girl" and asked if she had time for older guys.
The reply included the mention that "Jodie" was only 13, but the internet messages and text messages continued.
One of Mr Hunter's team, who posed on the internet as "Jodie", had used a photo of a 21-year-old woman for the teenager's picture.
Currier had claimed the "girl" had encouraged the conversations and had suggested the meeting and said he had been trapped into going to Nuneaton.
He told the jury he believed "Jodie" to have been seeking his help and had been trying boost her confidence in the messages and had no intention of doing anything sexual when he agreed to the meeting.
