A FORMER Southend deputy youth mayor allegedly groomed a schoolboy for sex and downloaded child porn, a court heard.

Paul Toomey, 20, of Bellhouse Lane, Leigh, is accused of sending explicit text messages to the boy, aged 14 at the time, asking him to perform sexual acts on him.

Toomey, a former youth worker, is also charged with downloading 784 pornographic images of children, found on his computer.

Toomey denies arranging the commission of a child sex offence and making indecent photographs of children.

Richard Scott, prosecuting, told the jury at Basildon Crown Court, yesterday, Toomey met the boy through youth work and the pair exchanged telephone numbers.

Mr Scott said Toomey, who was 18 at the time, admits sending a series of sexual text messages to the boy on November 26, 2009, but claims they were “banter” and he never intended to engage in any sexual activity with him.

One of the messages asked if the boy wanted to try performing sex acts on him, it was claimed.

Mr Scott said: “These messages were Toomey sowing the seeds for a relationship, or at least a single sexual encounter between them.

“This defendant was sending those text messages in preparation to set up a meeting if the boy wanted to.

“This is sometimes described as child grooming, what he was doing was very gradually coaxing him into it.

“He was in a position of responsibility.”

Several months later, the boy spoke out about the explicit messages in a group activity at school.

Police arrested Toomey on March 4 last year and seized his laptop.

On it they found 784 indecent images of young boys, but when questioned, Toomey denied having anything to do with the photos.

Mr Scott said: “He said the laptop was his, but that he often left it unattended in his office and denied being responsible for the downloading of those images”

Toomey was Southend’s deputy youth mayor from 2008 until 2009.

The trial continues.