A CONVICTED sex offender has been jailed after telling a 15-year-old girl to get back in touch with him after her next birthday after their social media chat turned sexual.

Gary Hale was banned from contacting young girls after being jailed for having sex with a 13-year-old girl when he was 30.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he was jailed in 2016 not long after he was released from his six-year prison sentence for breaching his sexual harm prevention order.

The 37-year-old pleaded guilty to three breaches of his SHPO for using digital devices and then deleting his internet history.

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, told the court that the defendant's most serious offence was talking to the teenager despite being aware of her age and told her that he couldn't take up her offer of sex as he 'didn't want to go to jail'.

Hale, whose long-term partner is expecting their child next May, was also charged with using online aliases 'BoredBoro' last year and 'Boroguy1982' this year to talk to people on dating site Plenty of Fish, including the 15-year-old girl.

Nicci Horton, mitigating, said her client had told officers about the wanted a 'clean slate' and confessed to all the charges.

She said: "He has partner who he has been with for quite a while and she is now pregnant and the baby is due in May next year. It was that fact which caused him to get rid of his phone and say to himself 'I have to make changes to my life and must stop doing that'.

"He knows he needs to make changes to his life - it's not appropriate at all."

The judge in the case, Recorder Alistair MacDonald jailed Hale, of Milburn Crescent, Stockton, for four years for contacting the teenage girl with concurrent three year sentences for the other breaches.

Hale was also given two concurrent 18-month sentences for failing to notify police about his activities.

The judge said: "In June 2013 you were sentenced for a number of serious sexual offences, including the offence with the 13-year-old girl, and you were given six years in prison.

"Very shortly after your release from that sentence you appeared before Teesside Magistrates Court for a series of offences which are remarkably similar to these you face today."