(Picture: Ross Parry Agency)

A paedophile was caught after he wrote a letter to the home secretary Theresa May asking for child sex to be legalised.

In his letter to the home secretary, Phillip Kirk, 22, from York, wrote: “I have been a paedophile since the age of 13 and openly a paedophile for the last three years.”

Kirk downloaded more than 1,000 indecent images of children and made a sex toy out of children’s clothes.

He had also researched child murder online and searched for local schools and girl guide groups in York, within weeks of being released from jail for other offences last November.

When he wrote the letter, Kirk had just served a sentence for breaking into a primary school and stealing girls’ PE kit and possession of indecent images of children.

He pleaded guilty to 21 charges of downloading indecent images of children and was jailed for four years, with another four years on probation.

Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told Kirk: “Yours is an extremely disturbing case. I must address the danger you pose to the public in general and to children in general.

“It is clear you have a very unhealthy interest in children and despite all your recent experiences, nothing it seems deters you from offending.”

The judge described Kirk’s letter to the home secretary as a “deluded and dangerous plea to decriminalise sex with children”.

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Kirk was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and banned from going within 100 metres of any school, youth club, or other gathering place for young people.

Detective Inspector Shaun Page, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “Phillip Kirk is one of the most dangerous individuals I am aware of, and I welcome the sentence at court today that will keep children safe.”

Prosecutor Laura Addy told York Crown Court that Kirk hid a USB stick from police on which he had illegal pictures of children.