VILE paedophile tried to groom 14-year-old girls in Southend to get them to perform acts for his own sexual pleasure.

Carl Spencer has admitted 23 crimes ranging from possessing and distributing indecent images of children, to inciting them to perform sex acts on themselves.

Spencer, 31, appeared at Basildon Crown Court yesterday dressed in a black jacket and white shirt, speaking only to confirm his name and enter guilty pleas to the offences.

The crimes all took place in Southend in 2018 and 2019. One of the girls Spencer tried to incite into sexual activity was actually an undercover police officer.

When police raided his home and seized his possessions, chat logs were found of other messages he had sent to people, who said they were 14-year-old girls.

Indecent images Spencer had collected were also found stored on his Dropbox account.

The sentencing has been adjourned so that it can be established if the other people he was talking to were in fact real children or other people posing as them.

Spencer had previously been on bail, however, Judge Samantha Cohen chose to remand Spencer into custody until his sentencing due the seriousness of the offending.

She told him: “You have entered guilty pleas to what are extremely serious offences, and I’m afraid they are so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence can possibly be justified.

“But I want to know more about you and whether you present a danger.

“You will be remanded in custody as your sentencing will not take place today.”

Spencer, previously of Southend but now of Havelock Road, Bromley, will be sentenced at the same court the week beginning March 2. He faces considerable time behind bars.