A 33-year-old man accused of paying a schoolboy to send him naked pictures over social media dramatically changed his plea mid-way through his trial.

At a hearing in Oxford yesterday Arron Lyons, of Forgeway, Banbury, pleaded guilty to one count of causing sexual exploitation of a child, one count of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and three counts of making indecent photographs of children.

A further count of causing child pornography was dropped by the prosecution following the guilty plea.

Lyons had initially denied paying the boy to send him the sexually-explicit images through Snapchat as the trial got underway at Oxford Crown Court on Monday.

He is due to be sentenced next week.

A jury had heard how Lyons befriended the then 12-year-old boy at a BMX park before lending him money on numerous occasions to pay for food and alcohol.

Over time Lyons began offering to pay the boy to send him sexually-explicit photos through the social media application.

The court heard how in a text message the boy had told Lyons he had been driven to self-harm, stating at one point, ‘I wanted to kill myself’.

When Lyons was arrested in April 2016, police found hundreds of indecent images and videos of children, including those sent by the youngster, on his phone and laptop.

Lyons was remanded in custody and will appear via video link to be sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday.