A PREDATORY paedophile who tried to persuade a boy to skip school to have sex with him was snared by a police regional organised crime unit.

Owen John Druett, 22, sent sexual online messages to “Noah”, said Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, prosecuting.

He also messaged: “Can’t you leave school and come here?” and “Come to my door, I will leave it unlocked, just come straight in.”

But the person he believed was a 12-year-old boy was really a member of the Yorkshire and Humberside Police Regional Organised Crime Unit.

Detectives arrested him near his home and found indecent pictures of children as young as 18 months on his mobile phone.

He told them he used them for sexual gratification.

Recorder Margia Mostafa told Druett about “Noah”: “You sent him extremely explicit messages, stating you wanted in essence ...sexual intercourse with him.”

The reason police carried out such operations was to snare predatory paedophiles such as Druett, the court heard.

“That is what you are, that is what you were doing on the internet,” she said.

Druett, of Pottery Lane, off Malton Road, York, pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child for sex and three charges of having indecent images of children.

He was given an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years on condition he does a rehabilitation programme lasting up to 90 days, 30 days other rehabilitative activities and 100 hours’ unpaid work.

He was put on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order allowing police to monitor his online activities for seven years.

His barrister Fiona Clancy told York Crown Court Druett had committed the offences at a time when he had been exploring his sexuality and when he had been depressed.

He had had a difficult childhood and lacked maturity.

But since his arrest in December 2018, he had had counselling and was supported by his family and friends.

He was motivated to rehabilitate himself.

Prison would cost him his job and his home.

Ms Stuart-Lofthouse said the messages were sent on December 11, 2018. Druett had encouraged “Noah” to spend two hours with him together and sent him his address.

Police used the information to go to his neighbourhood and spotted him walking towards his home.

He had downloaded 53 images from the internet of the worst kind of child sexual abuse onto his phone, 131 of the middle category and 108 of the least serious category.

He told police he had done so for his own sexual gratification.

Druett had no previous convictions.