Courts in England and Wales are to be given the power to sentence paedophiles to life in prison for planning the rape of an infant in cases where they have been caught in stings and no child actually exists.
New guidelines from the Sentencing Council will allow judges to impose a term of life imprisonment on people who conspire to rape a child under the age of 12.
In recent years police forces and private vigilantes, so-called paedophile-hunters, have conducted sting operations in which they pose as underage boys or girls online and allow themselves to be groomed by men on the Internet, often springing a trap after arranging a real-life meeting.
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