A CONVICTED child sex offender who was up to his deviant behaviour within months of being released from prison is back behind bars.

Nigel Lodge came out of jail in February and by May he was contacting young people on social media and was caught by a team of paedophile hunters grooming a ‘teenager’ for sex.

The pervert send sexually explicit messages to the 13-year-old not realising that he was talking to a decoy from the Child Online Safety Team.

During the sexually explicit online conversations, the 58-year-old, pictured below, urged 'Lauren' to sent him naked pictures of herself before sending explicit images of himself.

The Northern Echo:

Harry Hadfield, prosecuting, said Lodge used an online dating application to start speaking to his target before moving onto the encrypted Whatsapp messaging system.

He said: "He sent her explicit messages calling for the 13-year-old to send him naked photographs and get her to engage in sexual activity. He said to her 'don't tell anybody because I could go to prison'."

Mr Hadfield said the defendant encouraged the teenager to make a video call because 'he wanted to watch her'.

The court heard how Lodge was jailed in 2018 after sending indecent messages and videos to a 13-year-old schoolgirl before communicating with what he believed was another young girl while he was on police bail.

Lodge, formerly of Station Road, Darlington, pleaded guilty to inciting a young teenager to engage in sexual activity, attempting to incite a teenager to engage in sexual activity as well as breaching the terms of his sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).

Anthony Pettengell, mitigating, said it was the most sophisticated attempt at grooming as his client told the 'teenager' he was a 58-year-old man from Stockton, and used his real name to register with the online app.

Judge Paul Watson QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, said: "You were only released in February 2020, these offences in May 2020 where therefore committed within a matter of weeks of your release."

He added: "The messaging quickly descended into messages of a sexual nature, you inciting her to send you naked photographs and to engage in sexual activity.

"The importance of all of these offending is the short period of time between your release and the commission of these offences. The fact that the fictional character in question did not exist is not relevant at all in question to your culpability and what you were trying to achieve."

The judge decided against issuing an extended sentence for the defendant's latest offences he had not had any treatment in prison to address his offending.

Lodge, of Portrack Lane, Stockton, was jailed for a total of three years.