A SEX offender from East Lancashire with a fetish for boys in white socks is facing another date with a crown court judge after being caught in an online conversation with an under-age youngster.

Kristian Kirk, 26, has previously been snared by self style paedophile hunter Stinson Hunter after he became involved in a sexually-charged conversation with what he thought was a 14-year-old boy.

In the latest incident, Kirk was suspected of contacting a 15-year-old boy via the gay dating application Grindr and he was arrested by Lancashire Police at his home on Monday.

Kirk, formerly of Oswaldtwistle but now living in the Pendle area, appeared before Pennine magistrates the following day and pleaded guilty to breaching the conditions of a sexual harm prevention order and the commission of an offence during the operational period of a suspended sentence.

He was committed to Burnley Crown Court for sentencing, after a brief hearing, and will appear in the dock there on July 11.

An order was made by magistrates not to disclose his new address after his family home was targeted by right-wing vigilantes following previous court appearances.

Kirk, a former supermarket worker, must report to an East Lancashire police station twice a week before his crown court date.

Hunter, an online crusader was criticised by a crown court judge for his initial involvement with Kirk, a former University of Central Lancashire policing student, for his supposed interference in the administration of justice.

Kirk was also involved in a second inquiry with North Wales Police last year though, where he had asked to join a teenage Snapchat conversation then asked a 15-year-old boy for nude pictures, including images of him wearing white socks.

Last November Judge Newell, after hearing how he had been on a sex offenders' treatment programme, gave him a 26-week suspended prison sentence, which Kirk is now in breach of, alongside two years probation supervision, for an offence of inciting a boy aged under 16 to engage in sexual activity.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said: "Part of his sexual harm prevention order was a condition not to contact children who he believed were aged under 16.

"He was arrested as he was believed to have engaged in a conversation with a 15-year-old boy on Grindr."