A paedophile sent a love poem and used ‘flowery language’ to a ’12-year-old-girl’.

Ali Hassan, 31, thought he was contacting four girls aged between 12 and 14 but he was speaking to paedophile hunters.

Lisa Worsley, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said that Hassan was ‘caught’ when turned up at Blackburn train station with chocolates and chocolate biscuits for ‘Stephanie Miller’, a decoy account, on November 7, 2021.

A few weeks before, on October 6, the decoy account ‘Stephanie Miller’ received a message from Hassan simply saying ‘hi’.

‘Stephanie’ replied and told Hassan she was 14, but despite acknowledging this, the conversation became sexual, with Hassan sending images and videos to her of people kissing.

Hassan asked questions such as ‘do you have a boyfriend’ and ‘would you like to kiss with me’.

He asked her where she was from and she said ‘Manchester’ and he started talking about them meeting up, suggesting that she comes to Blackburn.

Arrangements were made for them to go to Corporation Park and KFC where they would be ‘kissing’, with Hassan telling the girl he liked ‘boob sucking’.

On the day they arranged to meet, the paedophile hunter met police at Blackburn train station and pointed out Hassan, passing over details of the conversation.

After his arrest, police found evidence of sexual communication with another three girls which Hassan had engaged in – again these were all decoy accounts.

In every conversation, Hassan would tell the girls he was from Blackburn and that he liked kissing.

To one of the accounts, Hassan sent a love poem to who he thought was a 12-year-old.

The poem read: “Can I say I love you today. If not, can I ask again tomorrow and the day after and day after that because I'll be loving you every single day of my life."

Hassan also told some of the girls that he was in love with them.

Mitigating, Isobel Thomas said that Hassan, of Whalley New Road, Blackburn, said that the offences took place some 18 months ago and that he has not been in trouble with the police since.

She also said that the defendant was 29 at the time, stating that it was not a ‘significant disparity in age’.

Recorder Andrew Nuttall dismissed that comment and said there most definitely was a significant disparity between 12 or 14 and 29.

Recorder Nuttall said: “The aim of the paedophile hunting team is to catch online predators and you were caught.

“You contacted with those decoys and I am satisfied it was grooming behaviour.

“You set out to flatter those young girls aged between 12 and 14.

“You sent numerous messages to meet these girls.

“You used flowery language seeking to flatter the girls, talking mostly about kissing and love.”

Recorder Nuttall jailed Hassan, who pleaded guilty to one count of arranging and facilitating a child sex offence and four counts of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child, for 22 months and two weeks.

He has also been made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years and will be subject to notification requirements for 10 years.