A YORK man who sent two hard core pornographic DVDs to a 12-year-old boy who he thought was 'evil' has been jailed for 16 weeks.

Mark Napier, 48, of Ryecroft Avenue, Woodthorpe, was told by a judge at York Magistrates Court that his behaviour had been 'absolutely inexplicable.'

District judge Adrian Lower said Napier was of previous good character and deserved credit for pleading guilty, and sparing the boy and his family from having to come to court.

However, he was still in a state of denial over his offending, having told a probation officer that everyone 'looked at that sort of material at that age.'

He said that while the boy had not opened the parcel, he could have done, and the boy's mother might have thought he had ordered the DVDs himself.

Stephen Munro said in mitigation that Napier was remorseful for his behaviour, which had been a 'moment of madness,' and apologised.

Napier pleaded guilty last month to two charges of sending malicious parcels through the post and the judge sentenced him to eight weeks in jail for each offence, to run consecutively, and said he would serve half the sentence before being released on licence.

He also issued a restraining order, preventing Napier from making any contact with the boy or his parents.

The court was told then that he had first sent a handwritten letter to the boy’s parents in September 2016, complaining about his behaviour and urging them to “discipline him before it is too late." It detailed reasons why Napier thought the boy the “most evil” child in the area for 20 years.

In early October, they received a postman’s message that there was a package for them for which the postage had not been paid. After the father paid for it online, the first DVD was delivered on October 10. The second arrived in a similar way by October 19.

The child’s mother recognised the handwriting on each parcel and intercepted them before he saw them.

Keith Whitehouse, defending, said then that Napier was a man “at the end of his tether” and that he had mental health issues. "He was beside himself,” he said. “It was in that context he sent the material and he bitterly regrets it.”