A SELBY man who admitted three counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and of meeting a female under 16 following grooming has been jailed for three and a half years.

Jake Parry, 21, of Millgate, Selby will be placed on the sex offenders register for life.

York Crown Court heard from prosecutor Richard Bennett that Parry had booked a hotel room in York three times for the purpose of having sex and he was clearly aware that the girls he was with were underage.

He had used Facebook as part of the grooming process of one girl and had deleted his account in an attempt to avoid prosecution.

On another occasion, Mr Bennett said, the police were called when one girl was missing and Parry was found wearing only boxer shorts with the naked girl in his bed.

Parry refused to give police his passwords for his phone or Facebook account.

Defending, Glenn Parsons, said the best point he could make was that Parry had pleaded guilty early in the proceedings. And he accepted it was his fault as he was the adult and it is right that he should be punished.

Judge Paul Batty QC told Parry: “Any right-thinking individual would be appalled by the circumstances of your offending.

“You targeted two extremely vulnerable girls and you set off to cynically groom them. You knew both of them were underage and you plied them with drink and drugs and sexualised your involvement with them.

“You groomed them both and paid for a hotel room in York, distant from where you live in Selby on three separate occasions.

“That rooms was for nothing other than sexual activity. The persistence of your conduct is alarming in the extreme.

“You were determined to corrupt and debauch two girls for your own sexual gratification.

“You had a child abduction warning notice that forbade you from making any contact with Child B, and you were arrested in breach of that order.

“A sentence in custody is quite inevitable. Children have to be protected by the courts.”