A CONVICTED sex offender has become the first Wyre Forest man to be ordered to stay away from children nationwide after sending explicit text messages to a girl.

Kidderminster magistrates slapped a Sex Offender Order on David Powell, who is currently in prison for indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl in 1999.

The order means the 33-year-old Bewdley man cannot contact or communicate with anyone under the age of 17 except through regulated meetings with relatives.

He is not allowed to stay anywhere a child is present, such as campsites, apply for any job which would bring him into contact with youngsters or loiter within 100 metres of a school.

If Powell breaches the preventive five-year order, brought by West Mercia Constabulary, he faces a five-year prison sentence.

A court order prevents the Shuttle/Times & News from publishing his address.

Last December Powell sent several sexually explicit mobile telephone messages to a 15-year-old girl, according to Neil Campbell who represented the police at Monday's hearing.

He did this just days after a police officer warned him to break off contact with her.

Mr Campbell told Kidderminster magistrates: "It's clear there is reasonable cause to believe the public need protecting from serious harm."

Powell was released from HMP Whatton in Nottinghamshire in May 2002 - on condition he did not mix with anyone under 18 - after serving less than two years for his crime.

But he became involved with the 15-year-old which meant he breached the terms of his release, activating another three years of his original sentence. Earlier this year he went back to jail until 2005.

The involvement led police into bringing the order.

Mr Campbell said it was clear Powell had breached the licence by taking young relatives to school in his car."At times he would also have in the car a 15-year-old girl and a relationship developed between these two," he added.

He refused to go into how it started but admitted Powell "didn't deal with it in the right way" despite his prison training on how to manage his life.

Powell panicked and saw a police officer and probation officer - telling them the girl was "coming on" to him - but he continued texting the girl.

Mr Campbell said Powell told the prison appeal board he was still sexually attracted to children. "He felt this had been reduced recently but he said he was compelled," Mr Campbell added.

Michael McColgan, representing Powell, said his client had co-operated fully with the police and stressed the relationship was not physical.

He said Powell had written in a letter: "I want people to know I'm trying to do the right thing. This could be my first step towards an offence-free future.

"I'm going to make damn sure when I'm released I'm not going to come back."

Mr McColgan admitted his client "should have known better" and said he has "long-standing problems which can't be cured overnight".

But he added: "Mr Powell is not predatory. He's not the man in the mac loitering around the school gates."