A 56-year-old Colchester man who was arrested as a result of a paedophile sting during which he had sexual conversations with a fictitious schoolgirl has been jailed for four years.

Ian Bridges began communicating online earlier this year with an undercover police officer he believed to be a 12-year-old girl called ‘Chloe’, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

During conversations he sent the fictitious girl a number of pornographic images and told her what he would like to do with her.

He told her he was 50 and despite it being made clear that she was only 12 he had asked her about her breasts and encouraged her to send him some pictures saying : “I like small ones.”

He had also asked her if she liked girls and if she had a boyfriend and asked her intimate questions about her body.

The court heard that Bridges was arrested in March this year and made admissions about his contact with the decoy schoolgirl.

He had also accepted continuing contact with her and having sexually graphic conversations with her knowing she was only 12.

Bridges, of High Street, Colchester, admitted attempting to get a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child under 13 to watch a sexual act and three offences of making indecent images of children.

In addition to being jailed for four years, he was given an extended licence period of three years.

He was also made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

The court heard that when electronic devices belonging to Bridges were analysed they were found to contain two indecent images of children in the most serious level A category, 24 indecent images of children and one video in category B and 26 indecent images of children and one video in the least serious level C category.