A pub landlord is today a convicted sex offender, more than two years after he tried to have an online sex chat with an underage girl.

Marc Craig, now 36, thought he was exchanging online messages and sending a sexual photo to a 13-year-old schoolgirl, said Kelly Clarke, prosecuting.

In reality the conversations on social media apps Chatiw and Kik were with a police officer masquerading as a teenager.

When Craig was arrested in 2020, he told police “he had done something absolutely stupid and he was an idiot,” said Ms Clarke.

Defence barrister Oliver Shipley said the exchanges had occurred during the peak of the Covid pandemic when, as a pub manager, Craig was under increasing stress and having to deal with potential unemployment.

Craig, of Marton Avenue, Bridlington, pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child.

He was made subject to a 12-month community order with 100 hours’ unpaid work and 30 days’ rehabilitative activities. He was also put on the sex offenders’ register for five years.

York Crown Court heard he was arrested in October 2020, but was first put before the court more than two years later.

Referring to the offence being a “one-off”, Judge Simon Hickey said Craig’s assertion it was due to the stress he was under at the time was probably correct.