A "predatory paedophile" posed as a woman online to get a 13-year-old girl to send him indecent pictures of herself.

Adrian Scarlett, formerly of Nursery Close, Dartford, was found guilty of causing a girl aged 13 to 17 to engage in pornography and meeting a girl under 16 following grooming.

The 39-year-old was cleared at Bexley Magistrates' Court last week of paying for the sexual services of a girl aged 13 to 15.

The court had heard, after meeting the victim at a house in Downham on November 14 2013, Scarlett used a fake Facebook account under the name of ‘Ami’ to make contact with her.

He claimed ‘Ami’ worked for Littlewoods and if the girl sent him two topless photos of herself they would help get her work as a model.

Scarlett, of Pevensey Court, Maidstone, added ‘Ami’ would send the images to her ‘Uncle Adrian’, who would pay £50 for them.

He received the pictures on his mobile phone and, after admitting who he was, arranged to meet the victim at Beckenham tram stop to hand over the cash.

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After his arrest on December 16 he told Detective Constable Laura Day, of the Met’s specialist sexual exploitation team, that when he first met the teenager she said she "wanted money and I knew she wouldn’t be able to pay it back.

"I just said ‘give me two pictures of your breasts and I’ll give you 50 quid for them’.

"She sent me two selfies. They were from the waste up and she had her hair over her breasts and that was it.

"She’s pretty but she had nothing going for her.

"They are everywhere aren’t they, selfies, everyone does it."

During the interview it emerged the pictures of the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been sent to Scarlett’s Nokia mobile phone, which he later destroyed.

Scarlett alleged that at their first meeting the girl "was being really seductive", "looked like a proper young woman" with a "tight top" and had her "boobs popping out".

But when they next met at Beckenham tram stop she was dressed "just normal" and had no make-up on, though Scarlett still paid her the agreed £50.

He said: "I looked at her in jeans and I just said ‘don’t ever contact me again’.

"I just could have died there and then when I realised she wasn’t how old I thought she was."

DC Day said: "This has gone from being 'I’ll give you 50 quid for a picture of your boobs' to the behaviour of a predatory paedophile."

Scarlett will be sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on a date yet to be set.