A Scottish teenager who tried to lure a 12-year-old Caerphilly girl into bed after meeting her on internet site Bebo has been given probation.
Paul Davies, 19, from Bellshill in Lanarkshire, tricked the girl’s parents into letting her travel to meet him in Scotland after calling them and posing as a pal’s dad.
Davies told the parents the girl was going on a camping trip. The girl’s real reason for travelling was overheard by a teacher who called the authorities.
He was arrested and later confessed to grooming her for six months.
Davies admitted intending to engage in unlawful sexual activity with a minor.
Hamilton Sheriff Court was told the teenager and the schoolgirl met through Bebo and regularly chatted via MSN and on the telephone between July and December 2008.
Davies had then sent the girl a nude picture of him which was found in her room.
Prosecutor Fiona Kirkby told Hamilton Sheriff Court at an earlier hearing that the girl, who cannot be named, and a friend bought train tickets to Bellshill, Lanarkshire.
Davies also admitted sending a photographic image that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.
Yesterday was placed on probation for three years and banned him from using the internet unsupervised.
He was also put on the sex offenders register.
