Archie Stupla-McCallum, 20 and from Great Bentley, was given a total of 21 months imprisonment, suspended for two years at Ipswich Crown Court on December 11.

Stupla-McCallum had previously pleaded guilty to five offences when he appeared in court on October 11.

•Cause/incite a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity without penetration (21 months imprisonment)

•Offender under 18 engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl under 13 (Two months’ imprisonment)

•Two counts of an adult attempting to meet a girl under 16-years-old following grooming (12 months’ imprisonment for each offence)

•Making an indecent photograph/pseudo photograph of a child (No additional sentence given)

He was made to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years upon conviction and was also given a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

He will also complete 60 days of rehabilitation activities, take part in the sexual offenders’ programme and have his mobile phones and laptop destroyed.

Suffolk police’s Cybercrime Team arrested and interviewed Stulpa-McCallum in June 2017. Police were alerted to him in March 2017 after being contacted by the parent of one of the victims. The girl, aged 12 at the time, has been receiving inappropriate messages from an older man.

In the end police found four victims aged between 10 and 15-years-old with the offences taking place between August 2015 and June 2017.

Stulpa-McCallum used a false age to contact three of his victims on a social media site for 13-17-year-olds called Yellow (now known as Yubo).

After chatting with them he would move their conversations to Snapchat, engaging his victims in sexual conversations and encouraging them to send explicit photographs. He also tried unsuccessfully to get two of his victims to meet with him.

Police said that during their investigations they also uncovered an earlier crime where Stulpa-McCallum had sexually assaulted a girl under the age of 13.

Charlotte Driver, Suffolk Police’s cybercrime supervisor, said: “Archie Stulpa-McCallum has clearly had an unhealthy interest in young girls for some while, committing his first offence when aged 17 against a girl many years his junior.

“After turning 18 and becoming an adult, he then lied about his age to sign-up to the app ‘Yellow’, enabling him to make contact with young girls.

“He knew his victims were all under 16, but despite this he continued to engage them in sexualised and inappropriate conversations. It is fortunate that his offending was discovered when it was and that none of the three later victims met him in person.

“I would appeal to all parents to monitor their children’s online activities and check what apps or messaging platforms they are using. As this case clearly displays, unfortunately so many platforms allow paedophiles to make contact with children and encourage them to send inappropriate messages or even meet up with them.

“Talk to your children openly about online safety and make them aware of the dangers around them.”