A CONVICTED pervert who avoided jail is “back in the community” in the Cotswolds, paedophile hunters have warned.

Mark Wixey, 38, from Ampney Crucis, admitted having sexual conversations on Facebook with who he believed to be two 13-year-old girls and admitted requesting images of them between April 27 and June 17 and between August 19 and August 31.

Wixey was charged on October 4 and pleaded guilty last month to two counts of inciting 13 to 15-year-old girls to engage in sexual activity.

He was sentenced on November 23 with a two-year community order and a five-year sexual harm prevention order. He was also fined £150 and was ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs.

But paedophile hunter group Dark Justice, which helped bring the sex offender to justice, said it was “deeply shocked by the weak sentence”.

A member of the two-man group based in Newcastle, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “He deserved to go to prison for what he did. Now he’s back in the community, he could just do it again.

“Wixey comes across as another sex offender who doesn’t care about his victims.

“His victims will never forget it, but paedos like him will walk around and forget about it.

“Hopefully, if he reoffends, he doesn’t do it against a real child. I hope he encounters us again.

“The reason he has not been given jail time could be many factors highlighted in the pre-sentence reports. Certain aspects should be taken into consideration, but you can’t be happy about him chatting to children in this kind of way.”

Two paedophile hunter groups, Dark Justice and Guardians of the North, caught Wixey red-handed using two separate Facebook profiles pretending to be 13-year-old girls.

Both groups, based in the north east of England, travelled down to the Cotswolds to hand the evidence in on Wixey earlier this year.

The Dark Justice paedo hunter explained: “He was adding multiple children. Both our groups received a friend request from Mr Wixey and he started grooming what he thought were children.

“It didn’t take him long. He straightaway asked them to send sexy pictures and asked if they were up for fun.”

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard:

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard:

(Screenshots of Mark Wixey's conversation with who he thought was a 13-year-old girl)

The man from Dark Justice said he and his partner hunt for sex offenders “full time” and said they could be investigating up to 30 people at any one time.

The hunters work by setting up a Facebook profile using a photo of a teenager. They say it is is done ethically, and is normally a selfie rather than a suggestive photo. They do not instigate any conversation, but wait for someone to talk to them.

The group started in October 2014 as members were concerned about paedophiles in their area.

The Dark Justice hunter said: “We were just concerned about what was going on in our area, what was going on with the police, who haven’t been given the resources.

“This is our way of chipping in and saving police money.

“Before, paedophiles went undiscovered. Now, we are a deterrent for paedophiles who want to find children and groom them online.”

The group have helped with the arrest of 131 potential offenders since 2014, some are on bail or still under investigation. Sixty-three offenders have been convicted, of which 32 have received a jail sentence.