AN ANDOVER man will appear at Basingstoke Magistrate Court next month, accused of breaching a sexual harm prevention order - after being snared by paedophile hunters in 2018.

Callum Lee Bates, from Andover was banned from having contact with a child by Winchester Crown Court in April 2018 after pleading guilty to sexual grooming.

The 21-year-old, who was 18 at the time, tried to meet a nine-year-old boy at a train station on January 2 2018, only for it to be hunters who had posed as someone named 'Dillon'.

He persuaded the decoy to travel for 'full sex' and wore a police uniform to the meeting to impress him.

Defending Bates, Lucy Conroy, told the court he had the “cognitive functioning of someone much younger” and was “clearly struggling with his own sexuality”.

Miss Conroy added there was a “youthful naivety” to the messages sent. She said: “When he was told that the age of the boy he was speaking to was 14-years-old, he replied by comparing it to Romeo and Juliet.”

In sentencing Judge Cutler CBE said it was clear Bates is a “highly vulnerable person” but added “you have much to give and there is a bright future and with the right help and guidance you can achieve this.”

Bates was given a three-year community order and had to take part in 60 rehabilitation activity days. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for five years and a sexual harm prevention order was made for five years.

Now, it has been alleged that Bates tried to make contact with a 13-year-old boy at various locations in Hampshire between September 8 and 11, 2019.

The case has been adjourned for a pre-sentence report to be prepared, and Bates released on unconditional bail.

He will appear at Basingstoke Magistrates Court on Monday, December 7.