YORK Police officers are hunting for a pervert who has been showing pornographic pictures to women and girls as young as 12.

The man is thought to have struck three times in the city on Tuesday, close to a primary school on one occasion.

One of the man's victims hurriedly called police because she feared that shortly after approaching her he had started to follow two young schoolgirls.

PC Hamish Halloway, of York Police, said officers were treating the incident extremely seriously and asked anyone with information to phone him on 01904 669564.

The first incident happened at about 3pm in Wordsworth Crescent, close to Woodthorpe Primary School.

A woman was approached by a man who flashed a pornographic photograph of a woman at her and made a lewd comment before walking off.

Forty minutes later another woman was approached by a man outside the Holiday Inn, Tadcaster Road, and shown pictures of naked men.

The woman immediately called the police because she feared the man had started to "latch on" to two girls aged about 11 or 12 and followed them down Tadcaster Road in the direction of Askham Bar.

At 4.30pm the man approached a 12-year-old girl, again with pornographic photographs of a woman, and made a lewd comment.

The girl's father later contacted police on her behalf.

In each case the man was described as white, aged in his mid 30s, with a pale complexion and of slim build.

He was between 5ft 10in and 6ft tall and was wearing a dark coloured baseball cap, dark blue anorak and blue jeans or tracksuit bottoms.

Updated: 10:53 Saturday, December 11, 2004