A FORMER youth team football coach is back behind bars after he was convicted of sexually abusing a young boy when he was a teenager himself.

Daniel Burn used a fake profile on social media to get the attention of his victim before encouraging him to take part in sexual activity on numerous occasions over a three month period in 2014.

The 28-year-old was sentenced to eight years in custody in 2015 after he used his connections in youth football and with a local cricket team to target some of his victims on the internet, trying to incite them into meeting him for sex.

Teesside Crown Court heard the latest allegations occurred at around the same time as the offences he admitted to previously.

Paul Abrahams, prosecuting, said Burn struck up the online conversation by pretending to be a teenage girl before persuading the boy to start to engage with an account belonging to 'Danny Burns'.

The Northern Echo: Daniel BurnDaniel Burn

The court heard how Burn's sent the youngster pictures of his genitals before persuading the him to meet up and he carried out a number of sexual offences.

In a victim impact statement, the man said: "What he did to me has affected me in so many ways, at the time I did not know it was wrong what he did.

"He used my age and vulnerability to get what he wanted without a care about what the impact would be on me.

"I battle every day with this and I struggle to find any coping mechanisms that help me. I started smoking cannabis to block out the memories and nightmares but this has just got me into trouble."

Burn, of Hawkesbury Mews, Darlington, was convicted of eight sexual offences following a trial earlier this year.

Robert Mochrie, in mitigation, urged the judge to consider the sentence his client had already served for previous offences carried out at the same time and asked him to consider 'totality' when punishing him.

Judge Timothy Stead jailed Burn for five years.

"At an age when he needed protection from such activity before he was sexually or emotionally mature, you caused him to engage with you, repeatedly, in sexual activities.

"The eight charges are entirely penetrative and there are more than one particular activity," he said.

"Since then he has come to realise that what happened to him was wrong, quite simply wrong, as far he was concerned."

Burn is subject to registration as a sex offender for life.

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