A Ryton man who repeatedly made inappropriate sexual comments to what he believed were two underage girls has been jailed for nearly three years.

Daryl Connolly, age 34, from Handley's Close, believed he was in conversation with two girls under the age of 16 online between February and July of 2020.

During these conversations, which took place online through messaging apps, Connolly made a number of sexually inappropriate comments and tried to ask for them to meet up with him.

Both girls were fakes, part of two separate investigations – one from the police, and one from an independent organisation.

Decoy 1, from the independent organisation, was presented as being 14 years of age.

During the conversations, taking place between two messaging apps from January to July 2020, Connolly made a number of requests for inappropriate pictures and requests for Decoy 1 to perform sexual acts on themselves.

Decoy 2, the account operated by police, was presented as being 13 years old.

Between June and July 2020, Connolly messaged Decoy 2 over various apps, again requesting pictures and sending a series of sexually inappropriate messages.

On 29 August, after a full investigation into data pulled from his electronic devices following an initial arrest in July 2020, Connolly was charged with two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and one count of attempting to incite a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity.

He has been sentenced to 32 months in prison and will be required to pay a victim's surcharge of £181.

Further, he is required to register with police under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 indefinitely and has been given a sexual harm prevention order severely restricting his usage of electronic devices until December 2033.

Officer in charge of the investigation, DC Gallagher said: "Over the course of what he believed were conversations with underage children, Connolly comes close to self-awareness at several points – he grapples with the idea that what he is doing is wrong, but then continues sending the explicit messages anyway".

"A sentence of over two and a half years in prison should give him all the time he needs to properly come to understand the full nature of his activities, and the children he could have caused harm to".

"Upon his release, we will be keeping a very close eye on him for the rest of his life."