A SEX offender who once tried to abduct boys outside a York school has defied a court order on contacting children - again.

Martin Kidd, 24, was given the restraining order when he was sentenced for trying to lure two 11-year-olds into his car in 2012. He had already been cautioned by police for arranging a sexual act with a 13-year-old girl through the internet.

Two judges have spoken of their concerns about him. Now a third has warned that he will be jailed for his latest offences against children - his third such prison sentence in four years.

Kidd, of no fixed address but formerly of New Earswick, pleaded guilty to three charges of breaching the restraining order by contacting three different girls via social media during 2014 and one of inciting one of them, aged 13, to engage in sexual activity.

Defence barrister Alex Menary urged the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, to adjourn sentence. The judge did so, so probation officers could assess the risk Kidd poses of committing offences against children in future.

"It is essential in a case like this," said the judge. He told Kidd: "The fact of going off for a report is not to be taken as any indication you will receive anything other than a custodial sentence."

Kidd was remanded in custody until he is sentenced on March 27. He did not apply for bail.

In February 2012, Judge Roger Ibbotson told him: "There is a very disturbing pattern to you committing offences with such persistence" as he jailed him for 16 months for two charges of attempted abduction of a child and made the five-year restraining order.

Within days of being released from that sentence, he broke the restraining order by texting a 14-year-old girl.

Recorder Graeme Cook, jailing him for four months, said: "Your behaviour is concerning to me."

According to the charges. Kidd breached the restraining order by contacting the first girl between April 1, 2014, and November 9, 2014, the second girl between September 30, 2014, and October 12, 2014, and the third girl on November 9, 2014, all by social media.

He is also alleged to have incited the third girl to engage in sexual activity on November 9.