A SEX offender jailed for inciting young girls to behave indecently during video calls went on to have sex with an under-age vulnerable youngster, a court has heard.

Daniel McKinlay, who admitted a string of offences, was today jailed for four and a half years after a Liverpool Crown Court trial.

McKinlay had told a 14-year-old girl that he was 16 but he was actually three years older than that when they met in Birkenhead Park in December 2017.

They had begun communicating after he favourably commented on a photograph she posted on Instagram and they subsequently agreed to meet at the park.

The couple went back to his flat where they had sex. They arranged to meet again the next day, said Louise McCloskey, prosecuting.

He knew she was only 14 and she became suspicious about his purported age when they met and he eventually accepted he was older than he had told her.

Miss McCloskey said that the girl, who had had previous sexual partners, told an assistant at her school that she was having sex with an 18-year-old called Dan.

Her mother was told and she called the police. When interviewed he admitted responsibility.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that in June 2016 he was sentenced to 18 months detention after admitting inciting two girls, aged 12 and 15, to engage in sexual activity by exposing their breasts during video calls and to touch themselves inappropriately.

He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years, meaning he had to tell police about any change of address or going abroad.

However last December he went to stay with relatives in Southern Ireland without registering that fact apart from leaving a text message on a police officer's phone.

He attended a voluntary meeting about that on January 13, a day later than arranged, and apologised.

He was arrested at his home two days later and a search revealed cocaine which he admitted was for his own personal use.

McKinlay, 21, of Marshall Close, Bromborough, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with notification requirements - her fourth such offence - and possessing cocaine, meeting a child following sexual grooming, two offences of sexual activity with a child and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

John Weate, defending, said that McKinlay had obtained a job in the retail industry but gave it up as he knew he faced a jail sentence.

He lacked maturity at the time but hopefully "maturity will now kick in."

He had taken to excessive drinking and drug abuse after his parents split up when he was 17.

Mr Weate pointed out that their had been a 12-month delay between his admissions about the sexual activity offences and being prosecuted.

Judge David Aubrey, QC, said that although McKinlay was comparatively young "you have an unhealthy interest in young children. There can be no doubt in the court's judgement that you represent a risk to such children as far as the future is concerned."

He ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.