AN ex-policeman sent an insecure teenage girl a series of "weird" messages as he attempted to groom her, a court has heard.

In a police interview played to the jury at Teesside Crown Court, the complainant told officers that David Waller would make comments about her size and ask her about her bra size before encouraging her to meet up with him.

Waller, who was about 30-years-old at the time, offered to cook the teenager a meal and take her out during a five-month period when he constantly flattered her by calling her "pretty" and wanting to meet her to kiss her.

The complainant told jurors that he would persistently ask her for photographs of her naked but she resisted his demands. She did say she had sent him pictures of her in her pyjamas and her bra and told how the defendant sent her a photograph of him in his boxer shorts.

She said: “He was always asking me if I had any photos of me with no clothes on and stuff like that. He would ask me, and I would say no, and he would say please, and he would just push it and push it.

“I did send him pictures of me in pyjamas and in a bra but I never sent him any with no clothes on.”

The teenager told the court that she had never been happy with her weight and was an insecure teenager, however, she felt flattered by the attention of an older man, who was almost as old as her own father.

When asked about that contents of the messages, she replied: "There was strange comments about my weight and him wanting to see me... which I thought were really weird.

"He was asking me about my bra size and stuff like that. There was never anything horrible or anything like that – it was just strange comments. He said that I had a perfect figure."

Waller, 33, of Eastleigh, Thornaby, is accused of a catalogue of offences, predominantly against teen girls, with the allegations spanning a period of more than ten years.

He denies all the charges against him relating to eight victims.

These include three charges of rape, three counts of inciting underage girls to engage in sexual activity, three of meeting or attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, two counts of sexual activity with a child, and one of sexual assault.

Earlier in the trial jurors heard how Waller boasted about his job as a police officer and his BMW car in an attempt to groom some of his alleged victims.

One complainant told the court how the defendant had taken her virginity when she was just a teenager and he was in his early 20s.

The trial continues.