A 34 year old Stonehouse man with a 'long standing sexual interest in children' was told yesterday that he he faces an extended jail term for a catalogue of 24 offences.

Jason Evans, of Gloucester Road, Stonehouse, admitted 11 offences and asked for another 13 to be taken into account.

Judge Ian Lawrie QC heard at Gloucester crown court on Friday that Evans used multiple online personas to communicate with girls, encouraging and inciting them to engage in sexual activities, to send him naked intimate images and to make arrangements to meet him.

Prosecutor Alistair Haggerty told the judge that Evans was arrested at Stonehouse Railway Station on July 18 this year, after he had gone there 'presumably in anticipation of meeting a child' he had been grooming online.

But Evans had in fact been communicating with three undercover police officers preptending to be teenage girls on a teen dating app.

Following his arrest and a search of his property, officers seized computer devices.

The possession of this equipment placed him in breach of a sexual harm prevention order for previous offending.

In total there were 2,638 indecent images with 70 classified as category A.

Mr Haggerty said some of the vile images were 'extremely graphic' with two hours of category A videos found.

As the officers continued to analyse the devices they found that not only had Evans been in contact with undercover investigators posing as children, he had been communicating, inciting and grooming real children online.

Mr Haggerty said that some of the girls were 'very vulnerable'.

Perverted Evans would use multiple personas on the MyLOL site, both male and female, to incite the girls into sexual activity, Mr Haggerty said.

He was known as both 'Jason' and 'Jessica' and kept files named after the underage girls he was communicating with.

Evans would use the 'Jessica' profile to reassure and encourage the girls about their communication with 'Jason'.

Mr Haggerty said there was clear evidence of Evans inciting the girls to send him intimate images of themselves, which they did, and further making arrangements to meet for sex.

He would promise the girls he would be 'gentle' with them, pay for their train fare and offer them alcohol to help them relax before sex.

Mr Haggerty explained the nature of the vulnerabilities of the girls that Evans was grooming.

One was aged 15 but had a 'mental age of 9', he said. Others had been care leavers, had behavioural issues, or were self harming.

Those vulnerable children were targeted by Evans on the dating site, and he would purport to be a depressed teenage boy or the sister of the boy.

He would pull at their heart strings, make them feel sorry for him.

The prosecutor said: “it was persistent contact with vulnerable young girls.”

Officers identified 11 children that Evans had contacted beyond the undercover investigator, but said they could not be certain if 'all' of those contacted were 'real or not'.

Mr Haggerty said Evans had a criminal record with 15 previous offences which all concern sexual offending against children.

The court heard that in 2017 he had been made subject to a community order for attempting to meet a girl aged under 16 after sexual grooming.

As part of that sentence a five year sexual harm prevention order was imposed.

“An aggravating feature are the previous convictions,” the prosecutor said.

Judge Lawrie noted: “A complete persistence in accessing imagery despite protective orders. Nothing seems to deter him.

“There is the collective gravity of what he is doing.”

Mr Haggerty agreed saying: “He sought to meet them for sex. He was arrested from the train station seemingly waiting to meet one of these children.”

“This is translating into intended contact,” the judge said. “A mark of significant planning. Persistent. Nothing deters him it would seem.”

Sarah Jenkins, representing Evans, said her client had 'childhood experiences' which she would not go into in open court that led him to be: “Seemingly inable to form relationships with adult females.

“This is from feelings of inadequacy and low self esteem which may be attributed to his own childhood experiences.

“His own expression of how he feels, is he is less likely to be judged by females who are younger.

“There is a lack of confidence so far as he is concerned, leading to a high degree of social isolation.

“He had very little to take him outside of his address. Spending long periods on his own.

“One meets other people involved in similar activity,” the lawyer said. “It starts to feel more normal than it should do.”

The judge said that Evans' previous convictions showed that there had been two previous attempts to provide him rehabilitation.

“It is recognised that the tortured personality is not cured in a blink of an eye,” the judge said.

“Two times he has had access to support, direction and correction to remedy his diverse sexual interest, but he is within a short time committing offences.

“I am deeply concerned that there have been two goes and it has not worked.

“At the very least he would be aware of the problem,” the judge said to Mrs Jenkins.

“I do not submit that he was not aware the behaviour was wrong,” she replied. “My point is that when submersed in a world with other individuals, it perhaps becomes more normal.

The judge responded “Point understood, but it is not an attractive one.

“I am very concerned.

“At the moment we are in the realms of the extended sentence. There is the gravity by sheer number and palpable risks.”

Mrs Jenkins said there were no 'contact offences'.

“That is luck by judgement,” the judge said. “That is not for the want of trying. Tipping up to Stonehouse railway station.

“I can't help but form the view he is a deeply manipulative individual. I got the impression he says things to professionals that he thinks that they want to hear.”

The judge said he could not proceed to sentence: “Because of the sheer variety and persistence of commission it is a complicated sentencing exercise.

“I will be imposing an extended sentence, but they are rarely passed in collective attempt cases.

“He will in custody for some time. The sentence will be on a date to be fixed at the end of January.”

Evans was remanded in custody until a date to be fixed.