A YOUNG “predator” contacted under age girls via Facebook to groom them for sex, a court heard.

Jamie Lee Clark Ramage twice met and cajoled girls to sleep with him, and was arranging a liaison with a third girl when her mother discovered her daughter’s explicit correspondence with him on the social media site and reported it to police.

Durham Crown Court heard  Ramage began contacting that girl, from South Yorkshire, only a week after his conviction at Newcastle Crown Court in early August, following a trial over his activities with the first girl, and in breach of his stringent bail conditions.

Ramage, 20, who was said to have “manipulated, bullied and emotionally blackmailed” the girls, was today (Friday, November 9) given a six-year determinate prison sentence.

It means he must serve all six years behind bars and remain on licence supervision for a further six years.

Dan Cordey, prosecuting, said Ramage met the first victim, aged 15, through a mutual acquaintance on Facebook and added her as a ‘friend’.

Despite her misgivings he persuaded her to go to his home to sleep with him, threatening to call off their “relationship” if she refused.

Mr Cordey said Ramage persuaded the second girl, who he knew was only 14, to meet him to have sex in a field.

The court heard his correspondence with the third girl, aged 15, featured an exchange of intimate photographs.

He told her he had received a £2,200 payment from a record company for music he had written and would use it to fund a weekend with her at a hotel.

Mr Cordey said on his arrest, after her mother came across the Facebook exchanges, Ramage told police: “I need help.”

Julie Clemitson, mitigating, said he now realises what he did was, “completely out of hand”.

“He’s built associations with these young girls as he’s not equipped with the tools to build relationships with people of his own age.

“He realises they are the only girls who would fall for the rubbish that comes from his mouth.”

Jailing him, Judge Penny Moreland told Ramage he, “manipulated, bullied and emotionally blackmailed” the girls.

She added: “You displayed predatory behaviour to identify girls to fall prey to you.”

Ramage, of Whinside, Stanley, County Durham, was found guilty of one count of sexual activity with a child.

He admitted a second, plus two offences of sexual grooming and one of arranging an act involving commission of a sexual offence.

Ramage must sign the Sex Offenders’ Register, and is also barred from working with children, both for life.