SOUTHAMPTON ‘paedophile hunter’ Stephen Dure has been jailed for 15 weeks after admitting falsely accusing an Eastleigh man of grooming teenagers.

Dure, of Fraser Close, Southampton, pleaded guilty halfway through his trial at Southampton Magistrates Court on Friday morning.

The 34-year-old runs TRAP, an online group which uses “sting” operations against those allegedly trying to meet up with underage children.

However, in November last year, Dure authored a post which falsely said Eastleigh man Paul Farhad groomed teenagers and was a violent psychopath.

In court on Monday afternoon, Dure was sentenced to 15 weeks after district judge Lorraine Morgan said it was “impossible to measure the damage” that the post had done to Mr Farhad, who claimed he had lost earnings as a result of the post.

Dure will serve half of the sentence in custody, but the court took into account time served on curfew over the weekend, meaning he is likely to be released by the end of October.

He was also ordered to pay £650 costs for the trial on Friday, as Dure changed his plea halfway through with new evidence coming to light.

Dure had originally denied the offence of sending a false message by public electronic communication network, but later pleaded guilty after Mr Farhad produced a screenshot of the post on his phone, which showed the words ‘grooms teenagers’ had been deleted from the original. After consulting his lawyer Alfred Underwood, Dure decided to change his plea to guilty.

Sentencing, Judge Morgan said the fact that Dure hadn’t admitted changing the post or mentioned it since November would be investigated.

She told the court: “The fact he [Dure] failed to notify anybody that he had changed the post, something he well knew, will certainly be looked at, but is a matter for another court on another day.

“I am not issuing compensation, because it is impossible to measure the damage that he has done to Mr Farhad, who says his home has been attacked, has lost earnings and his person been threatened in the street as a result of this claim.”

Prosecuting, Charles Nightingale argued that the post, which has been deleted, will always remain in the public eye.

He said: “In the digital age, nothing is ever completely deleted. It will remain accessible forever.”

Dure was also ordered to pay £115 for sending a false message to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety, and a restraining order against him from Mr Farhad is in place.