A LIBRARY security guard who sent a schoolgirl sexually explicit text messages and photographs is behind bars tonight.

Andrew Lloyd sent the 12-year-old girl a total of 111 texts over three months, some inciting her to sexual activity and one containing a naked photo of his penis, Durham Crown Court heard.

The girl, who was being bullied at school, fell in love with him and believed they were in an adult relationship, but Lloyd was doing it simply for the thrill and his own titillation, the court was told.

The 38-year-old was today (Friday, July 11) jailed for 32 months.

Lloyd, a security guard at Durham County Council’s flagship Clayport Library in Durham city centre, met the girl when she was 11 as she would regularly go to the library to do her homework, prosecutor Paul Newcombe said.

He would have known she was school age as she wore her school uniform, he added.

However, he befriended her, offered her his mobile phone number and said she could text him anytime.

The sexually explicit messages were sent in late December 2012 and early January 2013.

Lloyd called the girl “hun” and “sweetheart” and said they would be together soon.

In one message, he said he hoped the girl’s mother would not see her phone.

But it was indeed the girl’s mother who brought the wrongdoing to light, during a search of her daughter’s Blackberry.

In police interview, Lloyd, of Katherine Street, Darlington, fully admitted the offences, saying he had been drinking, knew what he had done was wrong and was sorry for everything.

The girl was left “changed”, frightened and devastated at how she had been taken advantage of, the court heard.

Lloyd admitted three charges of inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Tom Moran, mitigating, pointed out no sexual activity had actually taken place and said Lloyd had never intended it to, but that his actions were purely for “titillation”.

Judge Deborah Sherwin said Lloyd’s job placed him in a position of trust and parents were entitled to expect anyone working at a library would have their children’s best interests at heart.

Lloyd was made subject to a five-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order and will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.