A PAEDOPHILE who moved more than 100 miles to prey on a schoolgirl he groomed on the internet was last night (Friday) behind bars.

Ethan Jones, 23, gave up his home in Manchester to relocate in Middlesbrough after targeting the teenager on Facebook.

He was jailed for three years yesterday after a Teesside Crown Court judge heard that the pair spent at least one night together.

Jones was also put on the sex offenders' register for life, and banned from having unsupervised contact with girls under 16.

The loner befriended the girl on the social networking site at the beginning of this year, and swapped "highly sexual" messages.

He persuaded the 13-year-old to send indecent pictures of herself before her family became aware and contacted police.

When he was arrested, he asked police: "Why are you here? Is it because I had sex with [girl's name]. I thought she was 16."

Later, he told an officer: "She was never forced at all. She got what was coming to her."

Jones was told by Judge Howard Crowson: "On this occasion, you clearly and deliberately tried to groom a 13-year-old girl.

"Tragically, as I see in other cases, you approached her at a time when she was flattered by your attention and enjoyed it.

"She was persuaded by your attention that there was perhaps some affection behind it . . . there was none of that."

The court heard that the girl's sister warned Jones to stay away but he threatened to go to the police, claiming harassment.

He continued to put things on Facebook - including that he had moved to Teesside and got engaged, posting: "She said yes."

Peter Makepeace, mitigating, described the messages as "extremely immature bravado, and essentially talking dirty in a quite extreme and grossly unpleasant way".

Mr Makepeace said his client had "a semi-nomadic, detached, isolated state of mind", and was keen to examine the reason for his offending in prison.

Jones, of Norcliffe Street, Middlesbrough, admitted meeting a child after sexual grooming at an earlier court hearing.

A Sexual Offences Prevention Order restricting his use of the internet was also imposed by Judge Crowson.

In an impact statement, the girl's mother said the ordeal had torn apart her family because the teenager would not help police.