A TRAINEE scout leader sent explicit text messages to a 14-year-old girl, a court was told yesterday.

Benjamin Edward Cockburn also arranged for the teenager to go to his house for a "practical" lesson in "the basics".

But the rendezvous was cancelled when the girl's mother discovered a written list of some of his messages in her daughter's bedroom, along with a condom.

The woman alerted her husband, who immediately went to his daughter's school and "marched her to the police station", Durham Crown Court was told.

Mr Cockburn, 27, was arrested and both his and the girl's mobile phones were seized by police to reveal the messages sent between them.

Interviewed by police, Mr Cockburn admitted sending the messages and arranging for her to go to his house, telling her to use the excuse that she wanted to use his computer to access the Internet.

But he told officers it was a relief when she rang to cancel the arrangement the previous day, as he claimed he did not intend to go through with the planned sex "practical".

Mr Cockburn, of Millford Way, Bowburn, near Durham, denies a charge of inciting a girl under 16 to commit an act of gross indecency.

In one text, he also bragged how he had sex with two girlfriends over the desk in the scout hut, the court was told.

Giving evidence via a video link on the first day of his trial, the girl revealed she had a teenage crush on a 20-year-old friend of Mr Cockburn and they regularly sent text messages to each other.

She approached Mr Cockburn to explain what some of the other man's intimate messages meant.

When asked by Julie Clemitson, prosecuting, what advice he gave her, she said: "He told me about positions and stuff like that."

The girl said that a couple of days later she received a message from him saying: "Do you want to do practicals".

She said: "He told us that it was putting what he said in the talk into actions."

But the girl told the court that she intended to go over to his house to tell him she did not want to go any further. She also said the condom in her room was being kept for a school friend.

Mr Cockburn's police interview was read to the court by Detective Constable Anna Cummings.

Under questioning, he admitted sending the messages, but said: "There was never any intention of any sexual relationship with her."

The case continues.