A FORMER top-flight football referee was today beginning a 15-month jail sentence for sexual offences involving teenage boys.

Steven Dorr was branded “devious and manipulative” by Judge Patrick Thomas QC as he sentenced him at Worcester Crown Court yesterday, having been found guilty of three charges in September.

The 41-year-old showed no emotion as he received 15 months’ custody for attempting to arrange sexual contact with a fictitious 15-year-old via text message and 12 months for breaching a sexual offences prevention order (Sopo) banning him from having contact with children under 17.

Dorr was also sentenced to one month in prison for deliberately not informing authorities a toddler was among a group of people he travelled with to the World Cup in South Africa last year.

The three prison terms will run concurrently, meaning Dorr, of Bridge Street, Worcester, will serve a total of 15 months.

Dorr, who had been an assistant referee in the Premier League, invited three young soldiers – two aged 17 and one 16 – back to his room at the Fownes Hotel, Worcester, for a “night of fun” on Valentine’s Day last year.

He offered them £50 up front and a further £100 to take part in a sex act with him.

Dorr took off his trousers and so did the boys, but one of them grabbed the money and ran off with a friend. The third teen also eventually left.

He also offered to pay a 15-year-old boy for sexual contact when one of the boys texted him claiming his ‘friend’ was available, although it was a figment of his imagination.

A Sopo was imposed on Dorr in January 2009 when he was given a three-year community order after admitting 10 counts of downloading child pornography.

Paul Smith, defending, said his client had not re-offended since and had undergone programmes for sex offenders to address his desires without difficulty. He said the strict conditions of a lengthy community order on his client might be more difficult for him than a short custodial sentence without further treatment.

But Judge Thomas said he felt Dorr’s actions had given him no choice but to send him to jail.

“You plainly are a devious and manipulative man who used your substantial social skills in order to bring yourself into contact with people to whom you are sexually attracted,” he said.

“You are plainly sexually attracted to middle teen boys, 14 and 15-year-olds most specifically, and over a number of years you have demonstrated that interest.”

Steven Dorr - factfile

STEVEN Dorr began his refereeing career in 1985, at the age of just 15.

In 2000, he was promoted to the Nationwide League assistant referees’ panel, which entitled him to run the line at matches all over the country.

The 41-year-old was appointed chairman of the Worcester Referees Society the following year. In early 2005, he became an assistant referee in the Premiership before having to relinquish the post in May 2005 after being selected as one of 50 officials to referee in the Football League.

For Dorr, it was another step up the ladder towards his dream of refereeing in the Premiership and emulating fellow Worcester referee, Gerald Ashby. His career was not without controversy, as in April 2002 he dished out nine yellow cards in a single match.

Dorr retained his position on the National List of Referees until 2009. It was in that year he would fall from grace over revelations he downloaded child porn photographs from the internet and communicated with under-age boys online.