A teenager who had sex with three under-age girls and made two of them pregnant has been sent to detention for 12 months.

Daniel Mears, 18, of Cusop Close, Hereford, who admitted three charges of sexual activity with a child, has also to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Earl Pinnock, prosecuting at Worcester Crown Court, said that Mears was reprimanded in August 2006 for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

But he later struck up a relationship with another 13-year-old and she became pregnant.

He came to the attention of the police last autumn when a 15-year-old girl left home after an argument.

She revealed she had been having sex with Mears and had also become pregnant.

Adam Western, defending, said the relationship with the 15-year-old was one of genuine affection.

But Mears was immature and naive and the relationship had been conducted behind their parents' backs.

Judge Alistair McCreath said Mears had ignored the warning given to him in 2006.

Sometimes courts could take a sympathetic view of a boy/girl relationship but this was not the case with his history.

Courts had a duty to give protection to under-age young women.