A NORTH Yorkshire paedophile has been jailed after he was caught by undercover police.

Jason Carl Veal, 33, of Harewood Road in Harrogate, was sentenced at York Crown Court on Friday (March 1).

In January 2023, Veal sent a SnapChat friend request to what he thought was a 12-year-old girl. He then began sending explicit sexual videos of adults performing sex acts on themselves and encouraged her to do the same.

Police say that at one point, he believed the girl was at school and encouraged her to use the toilets to carry out the sex acts.

He was arrested by officers a few weeks later, he was then found guilty of: attempting to cause/incite a female child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, attempt to cause a child under 13 to watch/look at an image of sexual activity, attempt to engage in sexual communication with a child.

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He was jailed for two and a half years.

The court also ordered him to register with the police for an indefinite period and issued him with 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Detective Constable Kirsty Sullivan, from North Yorkshire Police's online child abuse investigation team, said: "Irrespective of who he was really talking to, he clearly believed he was communicating with a 12-year-old and that is of great concern to us.

"The language he used was disgusting and the images repulsive.

"The online child abuse investigation team works proactively and sometimes covertly to identify those who pose a risk to children."