A “predatory paedophile” who had sex with a vulnerable 14-year-old boy from Suffolk has been given an extended prison sentence after a judge branded him a danger to young boys.

Jailing 41-year-old David Warner for five years with an extended licence period of three years, Recorder Graham Huston described him as a “selfish, egocentric, predatory paedophile".

He said Warner had been jailed for 32 months in 2014 for three offences of sexual activity with a child in 2013 and still had the same mindset as he did then.

Warner, of Doubleday Drive, Heybridge, Essex, admitted meeting a child following sexual grooming, four offences of sexual activity with a child, two offences of making indecent images of a child and two breaches of a sexual offences prevention order.

In addition to being jailed for five years and being given an extended licence period Warner was banned from contacting the victim indefinitely.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register indefinitely and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.

In a victim impact statement the boy’s mother described what Warner had done to her son as: “A sick and devastating violation of his innocence and childhood.”

Gareth Hughes, prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court, said the offences came to light after the boy, who looks very young for his age, knocked on the door of a house near Colchester on February 4.

The boy, who was described as “shaking like a leaf”, claimed that a man had taken him in a car from the Sudbury area.

The police were called and officers who examined CCTV footage arrested Warner after seeing the boy get out of his car.

Mr Hughes said the boy and Warner had met in the autumn of 2020 sex after Warner contacted him on social media.

They had a sexual relationship which lasted until police became involved in February this year.

After his arrest Warner said he thought the boy was 18 and had met him twice with sex taking place in both occasions.

The boy told police that Warner had suggested he should run away with him and that he was his “new daddy.”

The boy said he’d changed his mind and had run away from Warner after telling him he needed to go the toilet.

Joanne Eley for Warner said her client had met the boy on Grindr and thought he must be 18 to set up a profile.

She said Warner denied ever being physically aggressive towards the boy.