A nursery worker has escaped jail despite pleading guilty to a number of child sex offences.

Karl White, age 26, of Marlborough Road, St Albans, had previously pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to incite a child aged 14 to engage in a sexual act, one count of attempting to incite pornography with a child and one count of attempting to facilitate child sex offences.

He was also given a rehabilitation order, a sexual harm prevention order and will be required to sign the sex offenders register for seven years.

He was arrested on April 20, 2016 by officers from the specialist Child Online Safeguarding Team (COST) after an adult posing as a 14-year-old girl online identified him.

He was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years

Detective Sergeant Michael Birch said: “It is always going to be unsettling for parents for a nursery worker to be investigated and I’m full of praise for their patience whilst we establish exactly what happened. We worked with the local authority and the nursery to ensure our inquiry was thorough. Our investigation showed that there was nothing to suggest that any of the children at the nursery were inappropriately approached by White. The offences, for which he pleaded guilty, relate to a 14-year-old victim.

“Unfortunately in this case innocent parties were targeted on social media and we want to ensure that it is understood by everyone that the only person identified of wrong doing in this matter was Karl White.”

He said: “We always respond positively to any reports or concerns about individuals suspected of showing an interest in child abuse, as occurred in this case. It is always important to report cases at the earliest opportunity so that there is no possibility of loss of evidence. He was arrested and we conducted a thorough and lengthy investigation into the offences. It was important from this point for us to examine all the evidence and present a water tight case before the court so he could no longer pose a risk to teenage girls.”

He added: “I’d like to remind parents to supervise their children’s use online, especially in chat rooms. Officers from the Safer Neighbourhood Team also work closely with schools to remind children that people are not always who they say they are and they could put themselves in danger.”