A FORMER Premier League assistant referee has appeared in court charged with befriending underage teenage boys and offering to pay one of them for sex.

Steven Dorr, aged 41, of Bridge Street, Worcester, denied all four charges when he appeared at Worcester Crown Court.

Dorr, a former chairman of Worcester Referees Society and a former committee member for Old Elizabethans cricket club, is charged with breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (Sopo) banning him from having contact with children under 17.

The order was imposed in January 2009 when Dorr admitted 10 counts of downloading child pornography.

He was given a three-year community order, told to sign the sex offenders’ register and banned from working with or associating with children.

It is alleged that between December 1, 2009, and February 14 last year, Dorr breached his order by associating with and attempted to befriend a person under the age of 17.

He is also charged with having contact with a person under the age of 17 between Saturday, February 13, and Monday, February 15, again in contravention of the crown court order.

The third charge is that he attempted to arrange the commission of child sex offences by offering to pay a 15-year-old boy to participate in sexual activity with him on Sunday, February 14.

The fourth charge is a further breach of the Sopo by allegedly having contact with a person under the age of 17.

The case was adjourned for a three-day trial to take place at Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday, September 13. Dorr was given bail on the condition he does not have contact with people under the age of 18 and continues to live in the Worcester area.