Student groomed Loughborough girl for sex

A university student was arrested on his way to a hotel to meet a 12-year-old girl he had groomed for sex, a court heard.

Behnam Taghinejad (22) befriended the child, from the Loughborough area, on the internet, while using a false name and posing as a 14-year-old schoolboy.

Within 10 days they had exchanged 1,900 messages on Facebook, Skype and by e-mail.

They also swapped naked photographs.

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Taghinejad, a mathematics graduate, who was studying for a Master's degree in astrophysics at Manchester University, travelled to Loughborough to meet the girl on August 14.

He had already booked a room at a hotel in the town.

Her mother found out about the rendezvous, after seeing some of the explicit sexual messages, and alerted the police.

Officers arrested Taghinejad as soon as he stepped off the train.

He had with him condoms and a laptop computer, containing incriminating messages and images of the child.

Leicester Crown Court was told he was also grooming a 14-year-old girl, in Kent, over the internet, at the same time.

Taghinejad, of Cheadle Hulme, Manchester, was jailed for four years.

He pleaded guilty to arranging to meet the 12-year-old after grooming and possessing pornographic pictures of her.

He also admitted three counts of inciting the 14-year-old to take part in various kinds of sexual activity.

Alan Murphy, prosecuting, said Taghinejad knew the first girl was only 12.

Mr Murphy said the defendant, using the bogus name Aaron Kingston, befriended the 12-year-old via a website, kidschat.net, aimed at 13 to 17-year-olds.

He created a Facebook account in the same name and the pair communicated on webcams for live video links.

He asked intimate questions and it was clear she did not understand some sexual terminology, which he explained to her.

She told police she had changed her mind about meeting the defendant at the hotel.

He befriended the 14-year-old via Facebook, using the same false name.

Mr Murphy said it was "of concern" he had made contact with three other girls, between 10 and 14 years, although nothing explicit was discussed.

Judge Simon Hammond said: "He clearly wanted to have sex with these two girls. It's the duty of the courts to protect young and sometimes, no doubt, impressionable girls."

Steven Newcombe, mitigating, said: "He's of previous good character and was candid with the police. He acknowledges he has a problem."

Taghinejad is now banned from working with children and will have to enrol on a sex offender register for life.

He was placed on a sexual offences prevention order, enabling the authorities to monitor his future computer use and prohibiting unsupervised access to girls under 16.