Charles who is from Stockton in Country Durham, thought he was messaging a teenager called Jess when he flirted with her and sent explicit messages online
An online vigilante group, which aims to detect child sex offenders, had created the profile of the fictitious girl, who was told by Joy: 'I'm not bothered if you're 14 or 20.'
Joy also sent the non-existent girl sexually explicit pictures of himself and suggested she sent him pictures of her body.
He also encouraged her to log on to pornography sites, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Rupert Doswell said Joy was confronted by members of Internet Interceptors at his home and police were informed.
He confessed he acted out of stupidity, posing as a 16-year-old boy online.
Joy admitted attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity.
Damian Sabino, defending, said: "He says he can't justify it to himself. He's lost most of those things one would hold dear in his life. His job as a fork lift truck driver, his family home, his wife, his children, his grandchildren and his good character and standing in the community. It's hard to imagine his regret."
He added his client abandoned the 'fantasy' himself, never arranged to meet anyone, stopped his behaviour and was never obsessed with it.
Joy, accompanied by a representative of the mental health charity Mind in court, had health and mobility problems and was assessed as a low risk of re-offending.
Joy was handed a three-year community order with 30 days rehabilitation activity, at Teesside Crown Court (pictured)
Judge Stephen Ashurst told Joy: "Although no real child was involved, you genuinely believed that a child was on the other end of the computer.This is a case where your fall from grace has been very dramatic indeed.You've worked throughout your life. You were married for 40 years with two grown-up children. You had a good reputation. You served seven years in the armed forces. Since the discovery of your activity you've lost virtually everything.You've gone into a cycle of depression and you find yourself here in a criminal court utterly disgraced.The public humiliation and disgrace counts a great deal towards the necessary punishment."
He gave Joy a three-year community order with 30 days' rehabilitation activity, saying this would protect the public better than a short jail term.
Joy was given a sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offenders' register for five years.
'It's effectively a first and only warning,' added the judge.
- Dailymailuk
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