Ian Cooper, 34, of Ocean Grove, unsuccessfully applied for bail in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court on Thursday and was remanded in custody until next month.

The court heard he was released from jail on November 30 last year after serving an 11-month jail term for offending against young female victims.

Then on Tuesday, the registered sex offender was in the area of Warrnambool's Civic Green when he started yelling out to a 17-year-old girl for a cigarette about 1am.

The court heard the man noticed the victim was wearing identification attached to a lanyard that indicated she was a minor.

Detective Senior Constable Jacqui Eaton, of the Warrnambool police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team, said the victim did not know the accused man and became increasingly terrified.

She alleged Mr Cooper followed the victim to the breakwater, commenting on her age and telling her to say she was 18 if they were stopped by police.

Mr Cooper allegedly told the victim he was classified as a "registered pedophile", that he used drugs and had previously been charged with following girls on a bus.

Detective Senior Constable Eaton said Mr Cooper approached the victim and grabbed her around the neck for about 20 seconds before later sliding his arms underneath hers.

"(The victim) was terrified at this point," she said.

She said the girl continued to be followed by the accused man as she moved through the city and back to Raglan Parade, where she had texted a friend to meet her near Warrnambool Primary School.

The victim and the witness went into the BP service station before later exiting and beginning the walk home as they believed they could no longer see the accused.

But he followed them to the victim's home where he could later be seen pacing up and down the footpath outside.

The victim contacted police.

Detective Senior Constable Eaton said the man had 29 pages of criminal history which involved touching a retail staff member on the bottom, touching a Coles worker and telling her that he loved her, and loitering around a nearby house where three adult females lived.

The man was also previously convicted of stalking three young girls on a bus.

Detective Senior Constable Eaton said that since his release from prison, Mr Cooper was repeatedly spoken to by police at licensed premises between 1am and 5am where he was believed to be staring at alcohol-affected women.

She said no charges had been laid in relation to those alleged incidents.

The detective said that during a previous police interview, Mr Cooper referred to himself as a "teenager on heat".

She said police were concerned about his behaviour toward women.

The man told the court that he'd been in jail for most of his life, that he'd stopped using intravenous drugs since his release from custody and that he was "really trying at the moment".

But police prosecutor Carolyn Howe said she feared for females walking freely in the street where they should be safe to do so.

Magistrate Nunzio La Rosa said the alleged offending had a "strikingly similar nature" to Mr Cooper's criminal history.

He said while the accused was seeking an opportunity to prove himself, he was an unacceptable risk of reoffending.

Mr Cooper was remanded in custody. He will appear in court again on February 28.

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