A pensioner was “mortified” and “thoroughly ashamed” as he was sentenced for talking to whom he thought was a 14-year-old boy online.

Frank Robinson, 79, was actually talking to an undercover police officer posing as a teenager named ‘Dylan.’

Julian Goode, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said the officer was tasked with talking to Robinson initially on WhatsApp and then on a website called FabGuys, a dating site primarily for homosexual men.

The two conversed and the defendant sent ‘Dylan’ a sexual image taken from inside a car.

Conversations between the two were sexual, with Robinson asking at one point ‘how long have you been w***ing?’

Robinson was identified and arrested on June 21 of last year and answered no comment to all questions in a police interview.

Graham Rishton, mitigating, said Robinson, a former coach driver, was someone who had lived a “good life, a productive life.”

Mr Rishton said Robinson has had a long-term partner for more than 30 years and has “spent a lot of time caring for others.”

He added: “He is mortified, he is embarrassed, and most of all he is thoroughly ashamed.”

The court also heard Robinson had moved out of the home he’d lived in for 30 years due to the prospect of people finding out what he had done.

Sentencing, Judge Sara Dodd said: “I am dealing with you for an attempted sexual communication with a 14-year-old boy.

"It was a police officer, but you did not know that when you tried your sordid sexual communication with him.

“You have worked hard throughout your life, you continue to assist other members of the community, and I accept you are remorseful.”

Robinson, of Westgate, Burnley, pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a boy aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity – penetration, the same offence for non-penetration, and attempted sexual communication with a child.

He was given a 16-month sentence suspended for 21 months with 40 rehabilitation activity days.

He will be subject to notification requirements and a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.