A PAEDOPHILE who tried to groom three children through Call of Duty was caught out when Microsoft passed his details to the police.

Ian Strickland, 43, was playing the Infinite Warfare edition of the X-box game when he started sexual conversations with two 12 year old girls and a boy, 13.

Preston Crown Court heard hundreds of pages of chat logs were handed to police after Strickland was jailed for similar offences in July last year when he was caught by paedophile hunters Dark Light. The group confronted him at his home in Wordsworth Street, Barrow.

David Traynor, prosecuting, told the court Strickland had spoken to one girl almost daily between February and April 2018, telling her she was smart, beautiful and had a nice body.

He continued when the youngster disclosed she was bullied at school for having autism.

Strickland even asked the girl how long her school skirt was and asked her to wear it when she came to visit him.

The schoolgirl said it was “kind of weird” Strickland, who pretended to be 18, was sending these messages to a girl of 12.

Between March and April, Strickland targeted another girl, also 12.

He promised her massages and asked about her body, telling her: “If you come here it will be just you and me, babe.”

The messages stopped when the girl’s brother confronted the online pervert asking him why he would send such messages to his sister.

Strickland’s third victim was a 13 year old boy.

The pervert asked him to visit him when he went to the area the boy lived in, telling him: “Maybe you can come to my B&B room rather than going to school.”

A police officer who examined the digital evidence said audio files were also recovered in which the teen could clearly be heard telling Strickland, ‘No’.

Following Strickland’s arrest, his mobile phone was seized and seven category C indecent images were found of children of South East Asian descent.

The court heard these pictures had been sent to Strickland directly from their mothers, suggesting he was part of a larger group.

He pleaded guilty to making indecent images and three counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

Julie Taylor, defending, said the offences were committed before Strickland was sentenced to 18 months behind bars.

Upon his release he breached the terms of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order by contacting a child, but was caught out when the child returned home and told his mum Strickland had told him to keep their meeting secret.

Judge Graham Knowles, sentencing, said: “Very shortly after I sentenced him, Microsoft contacted the police to say he had been using his X-box at an earlier period to have these chats.

“It would have been perfectly open for this man to say before I sentenced him last time that in fact he had been using his X-box to have these offensive, indecent conversations and that the police would find in due course indecent images of children.

“He could then have had a clean slate.

“The conversations were for prolonged periods and were of a very nasty grooming kind. They continued when the defendant learned about the particular vulnerabilities of at least one girl.

“The offender’s perverted sexual interest extends to boys as well as girls.”

Since his previous sentence, Strickland has started to admit he committed the offences for sexual gratification.

Judge Knowles said the public would better be served by him taking part in a rigorous program to treat sex offenders, given he has already served a prison sentence.

He handed him a 12 month sentence suspended for two years, telling him: “You need to accept, because nobody else can, that you obviously have a perverted sexual interest in children.

“There are people who can help you to understand and come to terms with that, and find ways to turn you from acting on this interest and towards doing something which keeps you out of prison.”