Perverts be warned: A sexual predator can be charged with attempted rape of a child even when the "victim" is an imaginary lure concocted by cops, the state Appeals Court ruled yesterday.

The decision centered on the case of Kerry Vann Bell, a Shrewsbury man who tried to argue there was insufficient evidence to indict him because the 5-year-old girl he's accused of paying $200 to rent for sex in 2004 was invented by an undercover officer Bell thought was a prostitute pimping the child.