A SEXUAL predator who used social media to lure teenage girls into sex and prostitution was back online within weeks of his release from prison.

Warren Bernard, 28, was sentenced to eight years behind bars in 2015 after a judge said he “exploited technology” including Snapchat and Facebook to abuse five girls aged between 13 and 16-years-old.

One of the girls was persuaded to prostitute herself from Bernard’s flat in Islington, Liverpool, after months of grooming.

He also plied the girl, 15, with alcohol and had sex with her.

Judge Andrew Menary QC, sentencing in 2015, said: “The sad and alarming fact is that none of the offences would have been possible without the use of social media and the internet. You were able to exploit that technology.”

On March 29 2019, Bernard was released from prison with strict licence conditions and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) which banned him from using the internet.

Officers from Lancashire Police’s Sex Offender Management Unit visited him at Highfield House hostel in Accrington, where Bernard presented a basic mobile phone and told officers he did not have any social media or email accounts.

But through June and July, Bernard was snared by undercover officers who were investigating online predators in the North West.

It emerged Bernard had set up a KIK messenger account on April 29 - just four weeks after his release - using the names ‘ScouseJamie’ and ‘JamieL’ to express his sexual interest in children and send a naked picture to an undercover cop.

In the early hours of July 4 officers called at his hostel in Lydia Street, Accrington, and told him to hand over any internet enabled devices.

Bernard handed over an iPhone 6, claiming this was his only technology but on further examination officers discovered an iPhone 7 was registered to the same Google account.

He also had an Amazon Firestick plugged in to the back of his TV.

Bernard pleaded guilty to breaching his notification requirements by failing to tell the police his usernames, along with five breaches of his SHPO.

Peter Barr, prosecuting, said: “These offences were committed very soon after his release. If you look at the history of the Liverpool case, it is how he started his offending in Liverpool.”

Sharon Watson, defending, said her client understood that when he is eventually released from prison he will be subject to very rigorous monitoring by the police to ensure the safety of children.

Judge Beverley Lunt jailed Bernard for 32 months and he has been recalled to prison to serve the rest of his eight year sentence.

The judge said: “To probation you were saying everything correctly but behind their backs you were behaving like this again.

“By the time you were arrested you had set up sites using two different names and had already sent a naked photograph to an adult, a police officer, pretending to be an adult with similar perverted thoughts as you.”