A TWENTY-year-old Workington sex offender has been jailed after he illegally had contact with three 13-year-olds.

Carlisle Crown Court was told that Jamie Joseph Taylor had also “sought out” the company of two teenage boys, sending one of them text messages which included kisses.

Judge Nicholas Barker said the contact included the defendant hugging the teenager and walking closely beside him, making him feel uncomfortable.

Taylor threatened and scared the other boy, engaging in inappropriate physical contact and sending him “hundreds” of text messages, the court heard. Judge Barker said that the defendant’s behaviour had amounted to mild bullying, and had left the boy feeling scared.

The court was told of Taylor’s illegal contact with a 13-year-old girl. He was mean to her, sending her a message in which he told her to “kill herself” and texted her a photo of himself topless and partially under a duvet.

Throughout this course of behaviour, the court heard, Taylor, of Falcon Street, Workington, was subject to a strict a five-year court order which was meant to prevent him having any unsupervised contact with any child.

This included social media and text messages. The restriction was part of his sentence imposed by a judge in April, 2018, for previous child sex offending.

Taylor admitted six offences of breaching that order, and two charges of sexual activity with a child.

Judge Barker considered background reports, and heard of Taylor’s difficult life history and how he had already served three months in custody - an experience the defendant had described as “horrible” and one which made him appreciate freedom and liberty.

“This is clearly a course of conduct over a period of time,” said the judge.

Referring to the victim impact from one of the children, the judge said: “He didn’t like it and it still causes him distress and upset.” The judge said another of the children had suffered a negative effect on his behaviour and on his school work.

The judge sent the defendant to a young offenders' institution for 15 months, telling him: “At this stage, there’s no realistic prospect of rehabilitation. Immediate custody is the only sentence which is appropriate.”

He imposed a fresh Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which will run for five years.