A jobless 43-year-old Broadstairs man posed as a teenager to lure young girls into sending him sex photographs.

But a court heard Nigel Jackson's victims are still oblivious to the fact they were duped by the predator - because police failed to inform them.

Tubby Jackson, calling himself Neil Johnson, claimed he was a 17-year-old and used an old photograph of himself on Facebook.

Then he set about contacting upwards of 80 children using messaging apps including WhatsApp, Snagit, Skype and formerly MSN Messenger.

But amazingly, even though Jackson has now been jailed for 40 months, neither his victims nor their parents have been told of his arrest.

Judge Heather Norton heard that although Kent Police alerted other forces of possible victims, it is believed that none of the youngsters has been spoken to by police.

"Has anyone done anything to safeguard the victims? Anyone looking after them, making sure they are aware of the dangers? Nobody has done anything? Seriously?" - Judge Heather Norton

The judge asked: “Has anyone done anything to safeguard them? Anyone looking after them, making sure they are aware of the dangers? Nobody has done anything? Seriously?

“Perhaps the police should take some further action and take it a bit more seriously especially when there are girls who are clearly vulnerable and at risk of this kind of targeting and abuse.

“Frankly, they need to be protected and their families need to be made aware of it. The police should be taking it considerably more seriously than what I am being told they are doing.”

Jackson, who is now 45 and lives with his mum in Ramsgate Road, pleaded guilty to 11 charges, including inciting a child into pornography and sexual activity and possessing illegal images from the internet.

He said he started his fantasy world because he was “bored, lonely and isolated” and talking to girls, aged between 11 and 14, made him feel “less useless and inadequate”.

Kent Police were alerted by Hants Police in 2013 of Jackson’s online activities, which included enticing young girls into sending him explicit images of themselves and engaging in graphic sex discussions.

Prosecutor Tim Devlin told Canterbury Crown Court that the Child Exploitation Investigation Team tracked the owner of the Facebook account to Thanet.

Instead of finding a 17-year-old at the address, they discovered the 43-year-old who had been talking with up to 80 people since opening up his account.

Jackson claimed he hadn’t started with the intent of chatting with children “but that is how it turned out”.

Mr Devlin added: “He had been talking with about 80 people by messaging, the majority of them children in which he exchanged text messages, much of it of a sexual nature.”

The sex activity charges related to just three teenage victims whose images had been stored on Jackson’s computer.

The prosecutor read out various extracts of the conversations with the girls including various sexual acts and possible meetings.

Mr Devlin said that officers looked at the internet search terms he used and, in a more sinister twist, they also discovered he had been searching for hotels near one of his victims in the North East of England.

After the hearing, a police spokesman said: "As far as Kent Police is concerned all Kent matters were dealt with thoroughly and our investigation led to this offender being brought to justice, unable to cause harm to any further victims.

"We take victim identification very seriously and were the first police force in the country to create a full-time victim identification officer post.

"Where our officers were able to identify potential victims outside of Kent the relevant police forces were notified.

"It would then be their responsibility to act on that intelligence.

"It would be impossible to check up on every single referral we make to other forces."