A WOODSETTON pervert who groomed a schoolgirl online by posing as a 15-year-old boy has been jailed.

Paul Hawker encouraged the 13-year-old to set up a secret online file where they could share private messages, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The 55- year-old also created another false identity to keep the "fantasy" going by pretending to be the schoolboy's teenage sister.

But he was finally rumbled, when the girl's parents took her iPad as a joke and then became suspicious when she overreacted, said Sati Ruck, prosecuting.

Miss Ruck said Hawker set up an instant message app with the girl so they could chat before asking her for photographs and talking about "kissing and cuddling" at bedtimes.

He then created 17-year-old Tina - the non-existent sister - because he felt the schoolgirl would trust someone who was older and he then encouraged her to discuss sexual matters.

The ‘sister’ told the victim her brother was in hospital and then suggested she should send him photographs of her breasts to make him feel better.

He also got the girl to perform a sexual act after telling her not to be shy and he tried to persuade her to forward photographs of her naked - but this did not happen, added Miss Ruck.

After the parents took the iPad they checked the contents and once they discovered what had been going on they immediately contacted police and Hawker was arrested.

Hawker, who told a neighbour he had pretended to be a 14-year-old girl on social media, also created a fan club for the American girl band Fifth Harmony and that led to contact being made by hundreds of teenagers all over the world.

Recorder Nicholas Syfret QC told Hawker people who went onto the internet to establish social relationships were always at serious risk of being exploited by sexual predators.

"That is something that could cause them serious psychological harm or worse should actual contact take place," he added.

Hawker, of Parkes Hall Road, admitted inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and was jailed for 40 months and made the subject of an unlimited Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Stephen Hamblett, defending, said Hawker – who had previously served a prison sentence for taking indecent photographs and gross indecency - had mental problems and he stressed it had never been his intention to meet the schoolgirl.