A man who lured a teenage boy to his home and sexually assaulted him has been jailed for 15 months.

Howard Dear was told by a judge he considered him a high risk of offending further but to qualify for an indefinite sentence a minimum of four years would have to be imposed.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the “predatory” 55-year-old, of Bybrook Road, Kennington, had previously been imprisoned for indecency with boys.

Allister Walker, prosecuting, said Dear used a chat text service to talk to youths. The victim left home and another boy told him Dear was on his way to collect him.

Dear drove to Lincoln and took the boy back to his house in December last year. During the journey he touched the 16-year-old boy’s thigh.

At the house, the boy fell asleep on the settee. He awoke to find his trousers being undone and Dear touching him.

The teenager knocked Dear’s hand away and demanded to be allowed to call his mother. He told the boy not to give his address. But he did and his mother collected him.

When police later went there, Dear handed over magazines dating back to the 1960s showing “extreme pornography” of children being abused by adults.

Dear told officers he had been attracted to boys over the age of 14 but was not sexually active any more.

He admitted four charges of possessing indecent photographs of children and one of sexual assault.

Mr Walker said Dear had convictions dating back to 1972. In December 1998 he was jailed for four-and-a-half years, reduced to three-and-a-half years on appeal, for indecency with boys.

In November 2001 he was jailed for four months at Canterbury Crown Court for indecency.

Dear was banned from working with children and placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.