A CHILD abductor has been jailed after inviting a seven-year-old boy to his house and feeding him sweets and pop.

Judge Mark Brown said Lee Deelay showed 'all the hallmark signs of classic grooming behaviour' as he put him behind bars for two years.

Prosecutors said the 34-year-old asked the boy if he wanted money to buy Tic Tacs from the shop and accompanied him there.

Deelay then invited the boy back to his house where, the court heard, they talked and he gave him Vimto and M&Ms.

A court heard the boy's parents became worried when he did not return home from playing football.

He was later found wandering the streets without his bike.

The court heard the boy later gave specific details of the house when questioned by police.

The parents said the boy was not physically or emotionally harmed by the incident.

Appearing at Preston Crown Court, he admitted one charge of child abduction.

Judge Mark Brown issued a restraining order prohibiting Deelay from contacting the parents or the child, or entering a certain part of Barrow, for five years.

He said: “Your conduct has all the hallmarks of classic grooming behaviour and it seems to me what has been said has to impose a high risk of harm to children.

“If you were to commit another offence in relation to a child it would be likely that you would get a much larger sentence.”

Prosecution lawyer Rachael Woods told the court the child had asked his dad if he could play football on the field near their home at around 4.30pm.

She said: “His father began to look for him at 5.15pm.

“He was spotted at about 6pm when he reappeared without his bike.

“When asked where he had been he said he was sat in his mate’s back garden.”

The mate he was referring to was Deelay.

Sharon Watson, mitigating, told the court this was not a serious example of this sort of case and the meeting was by way of 'happenstance'.

She said: “It was in daylight hours and in front of the shopkeeper.

“There were no inducements or force used to get him to the house and there was no suggestion he was touched in any way.”

She said the incident showed low-level risk of harm and culpability because there were multiple opportunities for misconduct which were not used by the defendant. She said a hammer attack that caused Deelay brain damage back in 2009 should be taken as mitigation.

He was also charged with failure to comply with a notification requirement following a sexual offence back in 2010 after he obtained a passport.

Judge Mark Brown sentenced Deelay to six months in prison for that offence to be served concurrently with his two-year sentence for child abduction.