A PAEDOPHILE is behind bars facing another jail term after he was convicted of a series of sex offences against a girl.

Ex-Burnley youth worker Michael Heffernan, 58, was found guilty of one charge of assault by penetration and four allegations of sexual assault, after a trial at Burnley Crown Court.

The jury cleared him of a charge of rape.

Heffernan, of Fir Street, Burnley, had denied the allegations.

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He was remanded in custody by Judge Beverley Lunt and will be sentenced for the offences and also for breaching a sexual offences prevention order, next Monday.

Heffernan was locked up for 16 months in August 2011, after he sent sexually explicit text messages to a schoolgirl.

The defendant had been convicted of two charges of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity.

He had been given the indefinite SOPO when he was sentenced and under the order he is banned from contacting or associating with youngsters, unless supervised by an approved adult.

Judge Lunt had told the defendant at the time that there was no alternative but to send him to prison as he had shown a worrying lack of empathy for his victim.

She had told the hearing: “The facts of the case evidence his perverted thinking and that his standing in the community was a sham.”