A paedophile chef told a “mother-of-two young girls” it was his fantasy to have sex with children.
Russell Brookman, 46, from Monmouth but latterly Warwick Close, Chippenham, thought he was having online chats with a real woman, prosecutor Abigail Jackson said.
But Cardiff Crown Court heard he was being tricked by an undercover police officer.
When the “mum” asked the defendant why he was sexually attracted to children, he replied that it was his fantasy to have sex with them.
Brookman added: “I think it’s because it’s so wrong.”
He also said it was a fantasy that had “never been fulfilled”.
When Brookman found out that one of the “woman’s” daughters was 10, he told her: “Ten is a very cute age.”
Child abuse images were also sent by him to the decoy.
The defendant admitted arranging/ facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.
Brookman also pleaded guilty to distributing an indecent photograph of a child at category B and distributing an indecent photograph of a child at category C.
His offences took place between July 30, 2025 and September 23, 2025.
Brookman had no previous convictions.
Alice Sykes representing him said: “He knows he has an issue which desperately needs to be addressed.”
Her client had sought help from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a UK-based charity focused on child protection.
Miss Sykes added that her client works and there was a realistic prospect of him being rehabilitated in the community under the auspices of the probation service as part of a suspended prison sentence.
The judge, Recorder Barry Clarke, disagreed and told the defendant that his offending was so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate.
Brookman was jailed for two years and eight months and was told he would serve around half of that in prison before being released on licence.
He will have to register as a sex offender for life and he was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for seven years.
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