A former Colchester man has been jailed for two years and four months for committing sexual offences against children.

Nicholas Day was 19 when he a met a 12-year-old girl at a bus stop in the Colchester area in October 2016 and later repeatedly contacted her through Facebook and via text message.

He arranged to meet her near Colchester but ran off when the victim’s father found out and confronted him.

Day, now 20, admitted a charge of meeting a child following grooming when he appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court on July 10.

He was also charged with two counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child after he was involved in a short relationship with a 15-year-old girl.

He met the teenager from Maldon online in September last year and sent her Facebook messages asking if she was single and how old she was.

Despite knowing her age, he asked if she was looking for a boyfriend. They exchanged messages and met a number of times over the course of a month.

Day, formerly of Colchester and now of no fixed address, admitted the sexual activity charges when he appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Monday June 12.

He was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court today to four months for each sexual activity charge, to run concurrently, and two years, for meeting a child after grooming.

The total sentence, to run consecutively, was two years and four months.

The judge also granted Essex Police’s application for a ten-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to be imposed on Day.

Among the list of strict conditions is an order that he cannot have any contact with any child under 18, other than when it is unintentional and not reasonably avoidable in the course of normal daily life, or the child’s parent or guardian has consented, has full knowledge of his sexual offending history and there is prior approval from social care.

He must not access any social media unless he provides log in and password details to police and consents to inspection of his accounts.

And he cannot own, possess or use a mobile phone or any device capable of accessing the internet, unless he notifies police, it can retain and display internet history and he makes it available for inspection by police on request.

Officers believe there may be other victims and anyone with concerns is asked to contact police on 101.

If they do not wish to give their contact details, they can speak to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or complete an anonymous form online by clicking here.

Young people can also contact Childline on 0800 1111 if they do not want to contact the police.