A KIDDERMINSTER man sentenced to 15 months custody for sex offences against a 13-year-old girl will be released in a few weeks, Worcester Crown Court was told.

For Thomas Lloyd-Perks had been held on remand in a young offenders institution waiting for his case to come before the court, said his barrister Abigail Nixon.

The 20-year-old, of Worcester Road, had pleaded guilty in September last year to sexual activity with the girl and taking indecent photographs of her genitals.

He was ordered to sign the sex offender register for 10 years. Judge Robert Juckes QC also made a sexual harm prevention order banning Lloyd-Perks from contact with any child under the age of 16 for five years.

Siobhan Collins, prosecuting, said Lloyd-Collins was only 17 in 2012 when he met the girl, who was to become his victim, at an activity group. She lost interest in the group but he continued to bombard her with messages on Facebook. At one stage he invited her to go to the nightclub where he said he was earning £150,000 a year.

Her mother had tried to block the friendship and said he could only come to the house after 5pm when she was there. But Lloyd-Perks continued sexual talk and the pair met in secret. He persuaded her to strip so that he could tell whether she was "a girl or a woman" and also took pictures of her private parts.

When she told her mother what had happened, the police were informed and analysis of his phone disclosed the pictures he had taken. In an impact statement the girl said she had been made to feel gullible.

Miss Nixon, mitigating, submitted references and said Lloyd-Perks was of good character and was well-supported by his family. He was regarded as an ideal prisoner while in custody and had been a pleasure to teach on a mentoring course.

Judge Juckes said Lloyd-Perks had been a very manipulative young man who had taken advantage of a 13-year-old girl. There was always the danger that pictures taken in private could get into the social media.