A PERVERT who ignored repeated orders to stay away from a schoolgirl was last night behind bars after being told by a judge: “If you do it again, I’ll throw the book at you.”

Sex pest Philip Gainford, 30, tried to use his low IQ as an excuse to dodge prison - the same mitigation which resulted in a suspended jail sentence in October last year.

Gainford, from Hartlepool, was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order by Judge Sean Morris which prohibited him from contacting the girl, who was then aged just 14.

But within weeks, the pair were in touch through social media and meeting regularly for sex on a beach, prosecutor Harry Hadfield told Teesside Crown Court.

The secret liaisons came to light when police officers made a routine visit to Gainford’s home, saw him trying to hide his mobile phone and found indecent images of the girl on it, and a series of text messages discussing sex.

On another social media site, there were hundreds of messages between the pair, Mr Hadfield told Judge Morris.

When the girl was spoken to by detectives, she admitted that they were in touch “every second of the day” and even when she was at school, and she was besotted with him.

Jailing him for three years and four months, Judge Morris told Gainford: “If I had been dealing with an average person, I would have thrown the book at you - and hard.

“I am satisfied, despite your obvious disabilities, you understood you should have stayed away from this girl. That’s why you concealed this phone and hid this relationship.

“Whatever the extent of your problems, at a basic level you know right from wrong and you knew it was wrong to see this girl again. You are capable of learning lessons.”

Gainford, of Troutpool Close, admitted two charges of sexual activity with a child, four of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, breaching the SHPO and possessing indecent images of children.

Earlier, his barrister Stephen Constantine told the court that he has an IQ of 65, was “suggestable”, and that it was the girl who made the first contact with Gainford.

“She is now of age and can vote with her feet, as the saying goes,” Mr Constantine, who said the teenager had told police she wanted to marry Gainford and have children.