A 65-year-old sex offender who was stopped by police and found with an Accrington teenager in his car has been jailed for a string of sex offences.
Nigel Delaney was sentenced to 12 years in prison at Burnley Crown Court.
Delaney was arrested in April 2016 after he was found driving on the M65 with a teenage boy from Accrington in his car.
Officers discovered Delaney, of New North Road, Huddersfield, had an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) from 2015 which banned him from contacting any child under the age of 17.
He was charged with breaching the order and remanded by police.
While on remand, a separate investigation was launched by detectives after two boys, both from Leyland, reported being contacted by mobile phone and online by an unknown man.
After officers found a photo of the man and shared the picture with neighbouring police forces, he was identified as a known sex offender.
Having seized Delaney’s phone during the arrest on the M65, detectives found around 250,000 messages sent to a number of boys across the Lancashire, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire areas.
At court Delaney pleaded guilty to 27 charges, including breaching the SHPO, attempting to pay for the sexual services of a child, attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child, making indecent images of a child, possession of indecent images of a child, distributing indecent images of a child and failure to comply with notification requirements.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, as well as a further five years on licence. He must serve a minimum of eight years, was made subject to sex offender notification requirements and handed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Det Con Wendy Potter, of Lancashire Police’s Public Protection Unit, said Delaney was “an extremely dangerous and predatory paedophile”, adding: “I must thank the victims, who showed great bravery in helping provide evidence to police.
"We welcome today’s sentence and hope it serves as a reminder to others wanting to commit such heinous crimes.
“Child sexual exploitation doesn’t only affect girls but boys too.”
