The former music teacher befriended a so-called teenage boy on dating app Grindr before exchanging lewd messages and pictures on Snapchat A brass band conductor’s dark secret was exposed when undercover police discovered his online activities under his “Mr Nice Guy” persona. Ben Coulson told an officer posing as a teenage boy “this feels like a trap” during a series of lewd Snapchat messages. The former music teacher had earlier befriended the so-called youngster on Grindr before exchanging a string of explicit texts and pictures. However, unbeknown to him, he was actually being ensnared in a sting operation by a PC who had set up a decoy account on the dating app, leaving a judge with a “stark decision”. Liverpool Crown Court heard this week Coulson, of Dearnley Avenue in St Helens, contacted the dummy profile on Grinder on July 23 last year. The 30-year-old, going by the username “Mr Nice Guy”, stated that he was “looking for hook ups” before sending a picture of himself “naked from the waist down” on a bed. READ MORE: {{title}} Nardeen Nemat, prosecuting, described how the conversation thereafter moved to Snapchat, when the undercover officer informed the defendant that he was “nearly 14 years
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