A PAEDOPHILE was caught reoffending after he sent a video of a man having sex with a young girl to an undercover officer.

Daniel Price, 26, had already pleaded guilty to possessing over 1,500 images of child abuse and was awaiting sentence at Durham Crown Court.

He was contacted by a police officer using a covert email account and sent out an image of girl aged under ten being raped.

Durham Crown Court, not aware of the sting operation at the time, handed out 12 month sentence, suspended for two years, on May 18, less than two weeks after he sent the video.

On Friday, the court heard Price then began deleting his internet browsing history, something he was banned from doing by a sexual harm prevention order.

He was arrested for the video on July 17 and police found 30 more indecent images of children being abused on his mobile phone.

Price, of Biscop Crescent, Newton Aycliffe, had been using a cloud storage system, breaching the order again.

The sickening images found by police featured girls aged between five and eight years old being sexually abused.

Jon Harley, prosecuting, said: “There was visible distress caused to one of the children depicted in the images.

“It is a persistent breach. The defendant admits he had been deleting his search history for a period of weeks.

Price pleaded guilty to distributing an indecent image, possessing indecent images and two counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order at a previous hearing.

Jane Foley, mitigating, said: “He is 26 years of age but he is described by the author of the pre-sentence report as naïve and immature.”

Ms Foley asked for credit for his early guilty pleas.

Judge Christopher Prince jailed him for a total of three years and eight months.

He said Price should use his time in prison to reflect on the nature of his offending.

Price will be the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order once he is released from prison.

The judge said he could expect to serve half in custody and half in the community on licence.

Judge Prince said the sentence could no longer be suspended and only an immediate term of imprisonment was appropriate.

He said: “You were given the opportunity to address your offending.

“You completely and utterly failed to do so.”