A former Canterbury school lab technician claimed he was "seduced" by internet chatrooms... and then tried to do the same to a young boy.

Pervert Daniel Pay began chatting with a 14-year-old and shared erotic fantasies - before enticing him to visit his Broadstairs home.

But Canterbury Crown Court heard the planned rendezvous never happened and the 27-year-old was arrested.

Now Pay, of High Street, has been jailed for two years after being found guilty of five charges of enticing a child to engage in sexual activity.

The technician at Spires Academy in Canterbury - who had denied the offences - claimed he had not realised the boy was under the legal age.

But Judge James O'Mahony told him: "Your victim was but 14 at the time, which I am sure you well knew because he made a number of references about going to school."

Detectives unearthed a dialogue between the two that revealed "detailed planning" for sex together together with directions to Pay's home.

The judge said the meeting "never occurred and in fact there was no actual touching" between the two.

He said that despite the youngster being complicit in the internet chats, the law was there to protect children who were too young to make important life decisions.

Helen McCormack, defending, said Pay had turned to the computer to make contact with other homosexual men.

"It seems he was rather seduced by the ease that connections could be made," she said. "He was reckless in not checking properly the age of the person he was talking to."

"Your victim mercifully has not suffered any lasting harm, but that's no thanks to you..." - Judge James O'Mahony

Judge O'Mahony read extracts from an explicit conversation in which Pay encouraged the child to engage in sex.

He told how Pay invited the teenager to visit him and how he promised him "a birthday treat".

"That would have led to sexual acts if you could have done it and all for your sexual gratification," the judge added. "You were twice his age.

"Your victim mercifully has not suffered any lasting harm, but that's no thanks to you."

He jailed him for two years and issued a sex offences prevention order for 10 years.

Pay took a job as a warehouseman after being sacked from the school.