A PREDATORY paedophile has been jailed after a covert police investigation on the internet.

Steven McCarthy, 41, of Cowden Road, Orpington, sent sexually explicit messages and an explicit photograph of himself to what he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

But it was in fact an undercover online child abuse investigation officer.

Forensic examination of the computers at his home found nine indecent images of girls aged between 14 and 16.

McCarthy, who pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming and attempting to cause a child to look at an image of sexual activity, was jailed for two-and-a-half years on Wednesday.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and banned for life from working with children.