A ‘FAMILY man’ from Bromsgrove has been jailed for grooming and sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl with learning difficulties, after she sent him a friend request on Facebook.

Paul Abbott, 54, of Rock Hill, groomed the underage south Warwickshire girl over the internet before meeting her for sexual activity in his car, Warwick Crown Court heard on Friday.

The victim, who had learning difficulties which meant she had the mental age of a nine or 10-year-old, first contacted Abbott after entering a name at random in a Facebook search.

But prosecutor Matthew Brook said Abbott then took advantage of the situation to groom the girl before arranging to meet her four or five times in December 2015 and January last year.

The meetings took place in Abbott's car, some after the victim finished school.

The girl's mother contacted her social worker in February, after becoming concerned about her daughter talking about having a boyfriend.

She checked the victim's phone and discovered text messages of a sexual nature from Abbott, but when she contacted him, he claimed he was only 18 years old.

After checking his Facebook page and discovering he was actually 53 at the time, she immediately called the police.

Abbott was arrested but made no comment when he was being interviewed, which Jamie Strong, defending, told the court had been on legal advice.

Mr Strong said: "There is nothing in his antecedent history to show he had any predilection for offending in this way.

“The gravity of the offending is not lost on him. He knows he’s going to face a substantial custodial sentence.”

In court on February 24, Abbott pleaded guilty to meeting a child following grooming, six charges of sexual activity with a child and three of inciting her to perform sex acts.

Sentencing Abbott, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones said: “For all the benefits of the internet and social media, this case illustrates the risks that can be associated with it.

“Here a young girl of 15, but who because of mental disability has a maturity of something like nine, came across you and you groomed her.

“You met her and you sexually abused her in the way you have admitted.

“You were aged 53, and she was both very much younger than you and vulnerable, and this was not a one-off offence, but occurred on a number of occasions.

“I have taken into account the fact that you have not had any convictions for this type of thing before, and that you are a hard-working man and have hitherto been a good family man.

“It is your plea of guilty at the first opportunity which is the fundamental plank of your mitigation.

“But balancing the fact that there was a degree of planning, there was grooming, there was a significant disparity in age and she was vulnerable, the category [in the sentencing guidelines] is 1A.”

Abbott was jailed for four years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life. The judge also made Abbott subject to a sexual harm prevention order, restricting his contact with children under the age of 16 and his internet use for 10 years.