A convicted sex offender who was jailed after being caught by a group of paedophile hunters was snared again by a decoy pretending to be a girl online, a court has heard.

Adam Greenacre, 37, had started communicating online with someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl, but who in reality was a member of a paedophile hunter group.

Norwich Crown Court heard the conversations happened while Greenacre was still on licence after being jailed in 2018 having admitted nine counts of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, after being caught by adult volunteers from paedophile hunter groups in online chats.

In the most recent offences, Andrew Jackson, prosecuting, said the online conversations between Greenacre and the “decoy”, which started in January, quickly “turned sexual” with him asking her age and whether she wanted a relationship.

He asked her to “keep it a secret” and asked for pictures of her. He also gave her his phone number and suggested he would like to take part in sexual activity with her and another during the conversations, which went on over three days.

Police were contacted and attended Greenacre’s address, where they were met with “quite a lot of resistance” from the defendant, who “raised both his fists”.

He punched the door and said that would be like the police officer’s face in a minute before he tried to back into his bedroom.

Officers got in and, with his “fists flailing about”, Greenacre caught one of them in the face and broke his glasses.

Greenacre, of Fieldfare Way, Swaffham, appeared in court on Thursday, May 7, having previously admitted attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity on January 2 this year.

He had also admitted assault on an emergency worker and damaging property, the officer’s glasses, on January 7.

Sentencing Greenacre to an extended sentence of 45 months custody and 75 months on licence, Judge Katharine Moore said he had “done the same things on previous occasions” and that she thought it was “extremely likely you will do this sort of thing again”.

He was told a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) would be made against him at a future date and ordered to sign on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Ian James, mitigating, said the defendant had never embarked on a conventional relationship and had been embroiled in this sort of behaviour for years.