A REPEAT sex offender has been jailed again for attempting to meet up with a 14-year-old girl for sex.

Stephen Painter was locked up in 2018 after he tried to meet a decoy 14-year-old girl for sex, only to discover it was really a sting operation by so-called 'paedophile hunters.'

The 67-year-old arrived for the meet-up in Yorkshire with lubricant, condoms and vodka with him before he was arrested.

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At Oxford Crown Court he was jailed for 18 months for that offence and made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).

At the same court in 2020, it was revealed that he had breached that order a total of six times and he was jailed for a further 24 months.

On Tuesday (March 19), he was sentenced again for 34 months after arranging to meet a young girl in a hotel room in Oxfordshire which also turned out to be a sting operation by ‘paedophile hunters’.

Sentencing the former public school groundsman, Judge Nigel Daly said: “Mr Painter, you know the score.

“I’ve read all about you but quite frankly it provides little mitigation, you’re doing this again and again and again.

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“It seems when you’re released from custody, you simply carry on doing it.”

Prosecuting the case, barrister Alice Aubrey-Fletcher said Painter had been caught messaging what he thought was a 14-year-old on a dating app called Badoo.

The account told Painter they were a teenager but Painter continued to message, asking for photographs and asking if they had ‘ever felt a man’s c*** before’.

He made arrangements to meet the account, suggesting he book a hotel room so they can stay night.

On February 26 this year, he was apprehended at his home address in Burford by the online group and taken into police custody.

Painter made admissions in the interview but denied that he would gone through with the arrangements.

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Defending Painter, barrister George Josef said that the defendant has not been able to explain why his offending began but suggested it started after the breakdown of his 20-year relationship with his ex-wife came to an end.

“His mother and father passed away two years go and he lives alone with his dog,” said Mr Josef. He added that the offending may have been born from ‘isolation and loneliness’.

He received 28 months for attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming, 28 months concurrent for attempting to breach his SHPO and six months consecutively for attempting to sexually communicate with a child.