A MAN has been jailed for attempting to groom young boys from Runcorn on Facebook less than a year after being released from prison for similar offences.

Richard Joseph Jones, 51, was jailed for three years at Chester Crown Court yesterday for breaching his sexual offences prevention order.

The court heard that Jones sent friend requests and messages to a number of 11-year-old boys on Facebook in December 2015 and January 2016, including several to pupils of Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy in Murdishaw.

Jones, who had been living at the Salvation Army’s James Lee House in Warrington, had been released from prison in April 2015 for sexual offences after a three-year sentence and was given a sexual offences prevention order.

Judge Roger Dutton said: “You went to prison in 2012 for serious offences regarding young male children, but upon your release you began to make further contact again with young children. There is an ongoing pattern of sexual offending.

“You continue to pose a high risk towards children especially young boys. This can only be dealt with by an immediate custodial sentence to make sure you’re not at liberty to make contact with young boys.

“It is in the public interest in my view that as much as possible is done to make sure you don’t offend again.”

It became known to police that Jones was messaging several boys when the mother of one 11-year-old checked her son’s Facebook account and saw the Warrington man in his list of ‘friends’.

She checked Jones’ Facebook page and saw that he had 77 friends – the majority of whom where young boys under 16.

Jones admitted that he was messaging the children with sexual motivation.

He also told police that he had more than one account and had sent out ‘thousands’ of friend requests.

Anthony Rose, defending, said: “The contact was very easy. These days you can just click a button and send out a friend request.

“The messages were just mere seasonal greetings and nothing ensued after that.”