During a web-cam chat when the officer could see Reubens, but he could not see her, he took off his clothes, exposed his penis and started masturbating.

Prosecutor Paul Abrahams told Judge Howard Crowson yesterday (Wednesday, December 6) that Reubens tried to send more messages, and told the recipient: “Hope didn’t offend.”

The investigation led to his home at The Cobbles in Stokesley, where police seized a lap-top computer which contained four indecent photos of children.

When officers arrived at his home in 2012, Reubens was wearing the same t-shirt he had on before stripping off for the web-cam display, said Mr Abrahams.

He told police he had done the same thing to as many as a dozen other girls during the previous year, but denied being sexually attracted to children.

His barrister, James Bourne-Arton, told Judge Crowson it was more likely that his motivation was that he had “a desire to feel submissive or humiliated”.

Mr Bourne-Arton said Reubens had sought help from a number of organisations after his arrest, and was determined to tackle his problems.

“He went to see his general practitioner with a general obsession with chat-lines of many a nature, and he got a book on gambling addictions,” he said.

“He is a man who appreciates he has, as he sees it, a real problem . . . he is clearly a man who is anxious to receive whatever assistance he can.”

Reubens admitted two charges of attempting to engage in sexual activity in the presence of a child, and one of possessing indecent images of children.

He was given a three-year community order and told to go on a sex offenders’ treatment course. He was put on the sex offenders’ register for five years.

The court heard that he is now living apart from his wife, and is suffering from a serious illness which might take his life before five years are up.