A Redruth man has been found guilty of arranging a child sex offence while working at the South Pole.

Simon Rouen was arrested at Heathrow Airport in March last year as he arrived back in the UK from the South Pole, a Kent Police spokesman said.

While abroad, Rouen, 36, from Redruth, Cornwall, communicated with two undercover police officers and expressed his desire to sexually abuse an eight-year-old girl.

Various emails were exchanged, with the final message sent in March from Chile as Rouen made his way back to the UK, police said.

He was arrested at the airport terminal by officers from Kent Police's paedophile online investigation team and taken to Maidstone police station to be interviewed.

Data found on his computer showed that he was storing indecent images of children, the spokesman said.

He was charged with arranging the facilitation of a child sex offence and possessing indecent images of children and remanded in custody.

Rouen was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court in January and jailed for three years at the same court yesterday.

He will also be subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (Sopo) and has been made to sign the sex offenders register, police said.

Detective Constable Jo Gordon, from Kent Police, said: "Throughout the course of the emails he sent, Simon Rouen demonstrated a very real desire to sexually abuse the child when he returned to England.

"Fortunately, through our proactive investigations we were able to identify the risk he posed to children and intercept him before any child could be abused.

"We will use all the techniques available to us to apprehend people who prey upon children online, and who use the internet as a tool to find children to sexually abuse or to view indecent images of children."