A former scout leader and trainee teacher who befriended an Ilford boy and others on Facebook before starting sexual conversations and sending porn links been spared jail.

Christopher Pimm, of Great Fox Meadow, Brentwood, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, three counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act and two counts of making indecent images and movies of children at Basildon Crown Court last month.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to a community order for three years of supervision with a parole officer.

Pimm, 24, will be listed on the sex offenders register for five years and is banned from working with children.

He will have to pay the court costs of �1,000.

The victims were three boys from Ilford, Brentwood and Basildon in their early teens.

Essex Police began investigating in October 2011 following concerns about Pimm’s level of contact with the victims.

He added the boys as friends on Facebook and then engaged in sexually-explicit conversations with them before sending them pornographic links.

When police raided his home, they found indecent images and films of children on his computer.