A 41-year-old Worcester man, said to have an obsession for young girls, has been made the subject of a hospital order and ordered to live in a specialist unit in Yorkshire.

Alfred Roberts, of Avon Road, Tolladine, was found guilty at Worcester Crown Court on two charges of meeting a child following sexual grooming.

Initially, he had been found unfit to plead by psychiatrists but a jury established he had committed the acts after hearing a trial of the facts.

Recorder Nigel Daly, making the hospital order, said Roberts was suffering from mental disorder which needed medical treatment.

He made a sexual harm prevention order and said Roberts should not have contact with any child for an indefinite period. He was remanded in custody until the specialist hospital was free to receive him.

Prosecutor Sarah Buckingham said Roberts met two girls at the Hive library in Sawmill Walk, Worcester in August, 2014.

He persuaded them to add him as a friend on Facebook, took them to lunch and talked in an over-familiar way.

She alleged that he had a deep-seated sexual interest in young girls. Police had found pictures of young girls, showing their underwear, at his home. He had several photographs of young girls by his bedside and around his home.

Roberts told police that he had no sexual interest in young girls but Miss Buckingham said that although no sexual activity had taken place, the evidence suggested that was his motive.

When he was bailed to await sentence, Roberts was banned from the Hive and every library in England and Wales and was not allowed within 100 metres of schools.