A man who tried to arrange a meeting with underage girls for sex but never showed up has received an extended 11-year jail sentence – on his birthday.

Gareth Lucas claimed the meetings with children he believed were younger than 14 years old were just in his imagination.

Judge Oliver Saxby KC told him: "You said the first arrangement was part of some cocaine-fuelled fantasy but shortly afterwards you made further arrangements – and again didn’t attend."

Lucas, of Hollingworth Road in Maidstone, was in fact talking not to children but to a police officer when he requested sex images from them.

He said he had got "cold feet" but the jury at Maidstone Crown Court believed the proposed rendezvous was made for the purpose of arranging sexual activities with children.

Judge Saxby added: "I am satisfied that had you not been apprehended you would have persisted in making these arrangements – and especially if you had taken cocaine – and actually turned up."

The court heard how between August and November 2019, Lucas used Facebook and WhatsApp to repeatedly ask for sex images from someone he thought was a schoolgirl – telling her he wanted to have sex with her.

Prosecutor Peter Forbes said that at the same time he used similar methods on another person he believed was a 14-year-old schoolgirl.

He said Lucas asked her to swap images after urging his victim to strip before requesting sex.

The court heard how because of a backlog he wasn't charged with the six sex offences, including attempting to contact a child for sex purposes, for more than a year.

Now, on the day he turned 31, he received an immediate seven-year jail term and the judge added another four years which will be served on licence when he has been released.

Lucas will be on the sex offenders’ register for life and was made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.