Peter Warren, 48, of Rushmere Road, Ipswich, sent sexually-explicit emails to a newspaper reporter he believed to be a 12-year-old girl.

Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court heard they included pornographic images.

Warren pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming over the internet.

The court heard Warren came into contact with the journalist in an internet chat room in March 2005.

They met in a park in east London in May last year.

Internet order

Prosecutor Peter Zinner told the court the reporter alerted police who set up a surveillance operation.

Officers arrested Warren as he sat in East Ham Park chatting to a reporter who he believed to be the young girl he had been communicating with.

Mr Zinner said: "There was never going to be a meeting with a child. It was going to be a meeting with an undercover reporter.

"But in the defendant's mind it was a meeting with a child with the intention of sexual activity."

The court heard that Warren had never had sex before and was of previous good character.

Defence lawyer Samantha Leigh said: "This is a classic case of the internet giving someone far more confidence than they would have in person."

Warren will be sentenced on 14 July.

He was bailed on condition that he does not travel to London except to appear in court, that he does not use a computer logged on to the internet and that he does not meet or communicate with anyone under 16 years of age unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian.