A PAEDOPHILE who offered sweets to a schoolgirl on a bus, asked her to marry him and approached young carol singers has been made the subject of a hospital order.

John Drury, 94, is a registered sex offender having been convicted of 11 counts of indecent assault on a girl under 16 and two counts of gross indecency with a child.

The Second World War Veteran was handed a four year jail term in 2005 and released in 2008.

Then in 2011, he was given a sexual offences prevention order which prohibited him from unsupervised contact with children aged under 16.

But he has breached the order on at least four occasions resulting in more jail terms.

His latest conviction came in July this year following a trial where Drury, formerly of Mersea Road, Colchester, had denied approaching the youngsters.

In reality Drury had sat next to a 14-year-old girl after boarding the Number 8 Arriva bus in High Street, Colchester.

The teenager told investigating officers the convicted paedophile asked her which school she went to and then said he wanted to marry her.

He breached the order again when he twice approached a group of seven boys, aged between ten and 11, at the Co-op, near his home.

The group had been singing Christmas carols as part of an organised school initiative.

The jury took less than 40 minutes to reach unanimous guilty verdicts.

Searches of Drury's home uncovered a school picture he is said to have shown to the girl on the bus and a packet of Werther’s Originals which he offered to her.

At a sentencing hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court, Judge David Turner QC made Drury subject to a section 37 hospital order with a section 41 restriction.

The decision means Drury has a mental illness which requires hospital treatment, however the restriction means clinicians must get permission from the Secretary of State for Justice to discharge him because he has been deemed a risk to the public.

The order has no fixed time limit.