A paedophile who posed a "serious risk" was told by a judge he would have been jailed for life if he had had sufficient legal powers.

Judge Stephen Gullick told lorry driver Harold Taylor he would have liked to lock him away for much longer than the six years he could give him.

But instead the judge used his discretionary powers to increase what would have been only a four-year jail term.

The high-risk serial paedophile who gave cannabis to one teenage victim and offered to buy another a mobile phone has convictions for abusing children stretching back to 1976.

Judge Gullick said the offences committed by 57-year-old Taylor at his home last year involved a gross breach of trust and he noted that after he was released from a previous seven-year jail term in 1999 for sexual assaults on an eight-year-old boy he was still assessed as being a high-risk offender.

He told Taylor: "The public and in particular teenage boys need protecting from you for a significant period of time.

"Had any of these offences carried a maximum of life imprisonment I would have passed such a sentence.

"You present, on all the information available to me, a serious risk to that section of the public."

Judge Gullick said Taylor's history and the facts of the most recent cases demonstrated that he posed a very high risk of reoffending.

In addition to the jail term Judge Gullick imposed a ten-year sexual offences prevention order which stops Taylor from having children at his home or having unaccompanied contact with youngsters.

He is also banned him working with children on a paid or voluntary basis.

As part of Taylor's sentence he will be subject to licence for a total period of 10 years and he will also register as a sex offender with the police for life.

Taylor, a long distance lorry driver of Hardy Avenue, Odsal, Bradford, pleaded guilty yesterday (THURS) to two offences of indecent assault on a teenage boy who he had befriended and taught to play the guitar and organ.

The youngster, who was aged 15 and 16 at the time of the incidents, cannot be identified for legal reasons, but Bradford Crown Court heard how Taylor showed him pornograhic videos and offered to buy him a mobile phone if he allowed him to commit a sexual act.

Prosecutor Geraldine Kelly also outlined details of a series of other offences involving two 14-year-old boys, who also cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Taylor admitted sexual assault, causing a child to watch a sexual act, engaging in a sexual act while a child was present and supplying cannabis to one of the boys.

Miss Kelly said Taylor again showed the youngsters a gay pornograhic video and while they were watching he asked: "Why don't you do what they're doing?"

She said Taylor had also tried to pull one of the boys' trousers down and told him: "I only want to play with you."

Miss Kelly revealed that as well as being jailed for seven years in 1995 for the offences against the eight-year-old boy Taylor also had a previous conviction in 1976 for indecent assault on a girl.

On that occasion his six-month prison sentence was suspended for two years.

Barrister Gerald Hendron, for Taylor, said his guilty pleas had avoided the complainant having to come to court for a trial and he said his client should receive credit for admitting all the matters.

He conceded that Taylor's previous convictions would cause concern, but he suggested that although harm had been caused to his latest victims they were not as vulnerable or as young as the complainant in his previous offence.