A MAN who had a relationship with a schoolgirl is starting a six-year prison sentence.

Christopher Paylor was 22 when he met the 14-year-old on the social media site, Whisper, and began grooming her.

He encouraged the teenager to send him naked photographs of herself, engaged in sexualised messaging and asked if they could meet.

During their illicit romance, the then student asked the girl to call him “daddy” and told her parents that he was 17.

Details of the relationship emerged after Paylor was arrested on a different matter and had his mobile phone analysed.

Teesside Crown Court heard how messages in the phone’s memory revealed they “were engaged in various forms of sexual activity” and had sex their first date.

Prosecutor Shaun Dodds told the court how Paylor met the teenager at Middlesbrough bus station, walked to Teesside University where his car was parked, and drove to his home in east Cleveland.

After his arrest, the trainee chef told police it started off with “flirty chat” and although he knew it was wrong in law, he “got caught up in the moment”.

Paylor knew the girl had been the victim of an earlier sexual assault, and was vulnerable after a bereavement, said Mr Dodds.

David Carmichael, mitigating, said Paylor had suffered depression and traumatic experiences in his own childhood which affected his “distorted thinking”.

Judge Sean Morris told Paylor: “The minute you realised that female was underage, you should have stopped then and there.

“She was a child. Girls of that age might appear more mature-looking than they are, but they’re not. Mentally, they’re still children. She was young and naive and vulnerable.

“It’s taken her a long time to realise that actually what happened was wrong because she was so young. And she’s not in any way to blame.”

Paylor, now 25, of Cliff Terrace, Saltburn, admitted three charges of sexual activity with a child, and was also put on the sex offenders’ register for life.

In an impact statement, the girl said: “When I met Chris, I was young and naive. I feel he took advantage of me. I accept my attitude at the time did me no favours, but he should have known better. After all that’s happened, I now realise what happened was completely wrong.”