A married father-of-two who travelled over 1,000 miles to rape a nine-year-old girl, was arrested in a sting operation by undercover police officers.

Mark Andrew Nichols drove from his home in Austin, Texas to an address in Orlando, Florida, where he was caught with two packets of sweets and a bottle of lubricant.

Orlando Police said the 64-year-old had responded to a fake website ad created by detectives posing as parents wanting to “learn new things about raising little ones”.

In conversation with a detective posing as the parents of a nine-year-old, Mr Nichols asked to have sex with the 9-year-old and discussed his plans to do so in detail, according to the police report.

Police said he also sent sexually explicit messages to a person he believed to be the girl, who asked him to bring the sweets he had been travelling with.

Mr Nichols has been chaged with of attempted sexual battery of a child under the age of 12, attempted lewd or lascivious conduct,

He also faces two counts of solicitation of a minor through a computer, obscene communication, traveling to meet a minor and unlawful use of a communication device.