A CONVICTED paedophile is back behind bars after being caught sending a topless photo of himself dancing to someone he believed was a child.

Nicholas Burns believed he was chatting to two 14-year-old girls online – but the profiles were in fact being operated by paedophile hunters trying to catch child sex predators.

The 31-year-old, now of Orford but formerly of Newton-le-Willows, was also sentenced for sending a nasty threat to have a child cut up and acid thrown in his face over a perverted TikTok post.

Burns was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court, having previously admitted two charges of attempted sexual communications with a child, breaching a sexual harm prevention order and sending a malicious communication.

Prosecutor Chris Taylor informed the court how the sexual communications offences occurred between August 11 and 16 last year.

Via Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, Burns began communicating in a sexual manner with accounts he believed to belong to two 14-year-old girls.

During these chats, he sent photos of himself topless, one of which involved him topless and dancing.

However, unbeknown to the defendant, he was speaking to two adults from a paedophile hunter group acting as decoys.

The decoys alerted Cheshire Police and Burns was arrested on January 29 this year – with the offence putting him in breach of a sexual harm prevention order for a sixth time.

This was imposed on the convicted paedophile through previous offending.

In March 2017, the online creep was jailed for eight months after threatening to put a gun to a schoolgirl’s head when she refused to give him her phone number on Facebook.

Nicholas Burns was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court

Nicholas Burns was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court

Nicholas Burns told his victim he was a gangster and said he would attack her dad – breaching a similar order imposed in 2014 for pestering another child.

Another breach occurred in 2019 after he wrote a letter addressed to two young girls in a sexual manner.

During his latest hearing, the court heard how Burns also fell to be sentenced for threats he had made to a 14-year-old boy via social media.

When the defendant posted his genitals on TikTok, the victim commented that it was disgusting, leading Burns to threaten to cut him up and get someone to throw acid in his face.

Taking all into account, judge Garrett Byrne sentenced Burns, of Cleveland Road in Orford, to 26 months immediate imprisonment.

The defendant was also told he must abide by a new sexual harm prevention order and sign the sex offender register – both for the next 10 years.

The sentence was welcomed by DC Nicola Charnock, who said: “As a registered sex offender, Burns was required to adhere to a number of conditions to deter him from reoffending.

“Despite this, Burns continued his attempts to meet young girls for sex, but thanks to the work of the decoys, we were able to arrest and question him.

“Although he answered no comment to all of our questions, the evidence against him was damning.

“I hope this result reassures members of the public that we do take act when registered sex offenders breach this order.

“I also hope this acts as a deterrent to those with sexual harm prevention orders and highlights the consequences of not adhering to the conditions.”