A SEX offender broke an order to stay away from teenaged girls when he befriended a 16-year-old at a hunt meet.

Jason Kiddle was subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) as a result of having been caught encouraging a 14-year-old schoolgirl to strip off on webcam.

The order banned any online or real contact with any female under 17 but he flouted it after meeting the 16-year-old while out hunting in North Devon, Exeter Crown Court was told.

He chatted to her on Facebook and carried on his contact after being warned off by her father and told of her age. The girl’s horrified parents only discovered he was still seeing her when they came across them hand in hand walking through Exeter’s Princesshay shopping centre.

Kiddle is a former ambassador of the Duchy College in Callington who met his original victim while showing her around the campus last year.

He is now working as a driver’s mate for a caravan delivery firm and his internet use and contact with girls are both restricted by the SOPO. He is due to start the Internet Sex Offenders’ Programme (ISOTP) in February.

Kiddle, aged 22, of Okehampton, admitted breaching the SOPO and was jailed for six months, suspended for two years and ordered to pay a £180 courts charge.

Recorder Mr Peter Towler converted the SOPO into a new Sexual Harm Prevention Order which will last for five years.

 He told Kiddle: ‘You complied with the previous order for some months but by September you were in contact by Facebook with a 16-year-old girl.

‘Her father was monitoring her Facebook and sent you a warning, telling you she was 16. You went on to meet her at a hunt and clearly arranged to meet her in Exeter, where you bumped into her parents while you were walking hand in hand at a time when she should have been at college.

‘It is important you should attend the internet sex offenders’ course, but those who break court orders must be punished. A suspended sentence is now in place so there must be no more contact with girls of 16 or under. Stick to girls your own age.’

Miss Francesca Whebell, prosecuting, said Kiddle broke two conditions of the SOPO by having online contact with the girl by Facebook, and seeing her without the permission of her parents.

She said the Facebook contact started in September and they met in person at a hunt later that month. By that time her father had intercepted the online chat and warned Kiddle his daughter was only 16 and he was breaking the order.

The parents complained to the police after seeing him hand in hand with the girl in Exeter on September 25. Kiddle told police he met the girl through a shared interest in foxhunting.

Miss Emmi Wilson, defending, said Kiddle believed the girl was 17 and that her father was lying about her age to try to break up their friendship.

He now accepts he should not have contacted her and plans to join a different hunt to avoid any further problems.

She said Kiddle committed the offences before he had a chance to undergo the ISTOP, which is due to start in February.

In the original case in January, Kiddle admitted four offences of inciting girls to send him indecent images and one of harassment and was ordered to undergo the programme as part of three years’ supervision.

The offences started when Kiddle was a student at Duchy College and was asked to act as chaperone to young visitors on a taster day.

He persuaded the 14-year-old to send him pictures of her in underwear and pose on a webcam. He also persuaded a 16-year-old to send him a topless picture.