A ‘WICKED’ paedophile who tried to lure a 14-year-old boy to his home for sex after sending him a photo of his penis and saying he was ‘horny’ has been jailed for four and a half years.

Andrew Swan, 42, believed he was exchanging messages on the Grindr dating site with a boy called Dylan but it was an undercover police officer working on Operation Reveal, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Swan, of Bradford Road, Stockbridge, pleaded guilty to three offences of attempting to incite a boy of 14 to engage in sexual acts on March 26 last year.

Prosecutor David McGonigal said that the undercover officer posed as Dylan on the over-18s chat site. He said he was from the Baildon area and made it clear that he was 14, asking Swan not to get him banned from Grindr.

Dylan told Swan he had never had full sex, Mr McGonigal said.

Swan sent him photos of his naked penis and asked for similar pictures in return. He said he felt ‘horny’ and wanted to meet up with the boy to take him to bed and have sex with him.

Dylan pretended to be on a bus to Swan’s home, saying he felt nervous about the encounter.

Swan coaxed him along, saying: “Come on mate, I’m horny as hell.”

The police then went to his home to arrest him and seize his phone.

He told them he was bored and would have ‘blocked’ the boy if he had turned up.

Swan had a previous conviction for buggering a boy aged ten when he was 14.

Mr McGonigal said it happened in woodland and Swan received three years’ custody.

When he was 31, he was jailed for five years for attempting to rape a 19-year-old male and sexually assaulting him at a house party.

The court heard he trapped him in the bathroom and tried to initiate sex. When his victim declined, he tried to rape the teenager before forcing him to commit a sex act on him.

The youth was injured and his blood was on the bathroom floor.

Swan’s solicitor advocate, John Bottomley, said there was no real victim in the latest cases.

Swan had been in work for seven years and his partner was in court to support him.

The defendant suffered with respiratory problems making him more susceptible to catching coronavirus.

Judge Jonathan Rose said Swan’s previous convictions had not persuaded him to abide by the law.

He sent what he believed was a boy aged 14 pictures of his exposed penis and asked the child to send some to him. He then tried to entice the boy to his home for sex.

“It was reprehensible and wicked,” Judge Rose said.

Swan had denied to his probation officer that he had a sexual interest in children.

“You need to accept that you are a paedophile with a sexual interest in young boys,” Judge Rose said.

He warned Swan that he faced the possibility of life imprisonment or an extended prison sentence if he committed similar offences in the future.