A disabled self-confessed paedophile was spared an immediate jail sentence so he could continue to be given help in the community.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that church-going Jermaine Clarke, who is deaf and cannot speak, had computer chats with a 12-year-old girl which had clear sexual connotations.

It breached a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, banning Clarke from having contact with children under 16, imposed in 2008 after he was arrested over indecent images on his computer.

Clarke, 33, of Westwood Hall, Peregrine Way, Clayton Heights, Bradford, was being sentenced after pleading guilty to breaching the order, and 11 charges of making indecent images, involving 400 images, all at level one, the least serious level.

Prosecutor Gerald Hendron said the images were almost exclusively of naked girls between the ages of 11 and 14. He admitted to police he had been looking for images of children and classed himself as a paedophile.

Despite being subject of the order, Clarke made contact with the 12-year-old on an interface web chat through social networking site Facebook.

During the conversation, the defendant told the girl he wanted to cuddle her and had a crush on her. The girl’s mother raised the alarm.

Mr Hendron said Clarke, who had the proceedings yesterday translated to him into sign language, had made references to loving the girl and wanting to have a “threesome” with her and another girl.

Clarke’s barrister, Jayne Beckett, said there had been no offending since 2009. He had been making slow progress, but meaningful work with him would cease if he was incarcerated.

The judge, Recorder Paul Watson QC, told Clarke: “You are someone who, by your own admission, is sexually attracted to young female children. As such, you present real cause for concern.

“There will be those people who will say that prison is the proper place for people who are, as you appear to be, sexually attracted to young children and who behave, as you have, for your own gratification.”

Clarke was sentenced to 51 weeks in jail suspended for two years, with supervision and a requirement to take part in the sex offenders treatment programme. The judge made a fresh order.

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