A TEACHER said to have been trying to meet what he thought he was a 15-year-old girl for ‘naughty fun’ called her ‘my sexy little schoolgirl’, a jury heard.

David Simpson, 49, had been messaging the ‘child’ on the internet, telling her they would have fun, sexy cuddles and it was ‘naughty and exciting’. He told her: “I don’t mind you being 15, as long as you want me.”

Burnley Crown Court has been told the defendant had not been communicating with a 15-year-old at all, but a woman in her twenties. Lisa Chard acted as a decoy to help a man named Stinson Hunter set up a fictitious profile on adult dating site Plenty of Fish.

Mr Hunter was out to trap what he would describe as a ‘paedophile’ and Simpson was later said to have been caught in a sting when he turned up in Birmingham, allegedly trying to meet someone he believed was a schoolgirl for sex in a hotel.

He claims he genuinely believed he had been conversing with an adult.

Simpson, a secondary school teacher, from Oak Street, Accrington, denies attempting to meet a female under 16 intending to commit a relevant offence, between February 22 and 27. The court has been told how within 15 minutes of the fictitious profile going online, Simpson had sent the ‘girl’ a message and conversation had soon become sexual, at his instigation.

Lisa Chard, now Lisa Rose, told the court said she replied to his first message, telling him she was 15, that he probably wouldn't message her again and she hoped he would find what he was looking for.

Asked by prosecutor Sarah Johnston about the defendant's profile, she said he was 48 and added: “I remember seeing that he was a teacher.”

Mrs Rose said after that they were in contact on a daily basis.

They had moved onto Kik Messenger the first day as Mr Hunter had told her Plenty of Fish would sometimes delete profiles. She said she had an image attached to her ‘Lisa Rogers’ profile on Plenty of Fish and the same one on Kik, which was taken when she would have been 26.

The decoy said Simpson asked her to take pictures in her school uniform and sent her a picture of his private parts.

Mrs Rose continued: “I didn’t send any sexually explicit messages at all. Any he sent me I replied ‘OK’ or a smiley face. I didn’t send any explicit messages back at all.”

She said she took screen prints of the sexual messages and sent them straight to Mr Hunter.

Mrs Rose said arrangements were made for the Birmingham meeting on February 26. She said: “He was asking me to prove I was who I was saying I was.”

The jury was told Simpson messaged the ‘15-year-old’, saying he hoped she wasn't going to be too shy in the hotel room, called her ‘my sexy little schoolgirl’ and that they would always have to be secret. In one contact, he told her: “We will have lots of sex when we are together. You won't be a little girl any more.”

(Proceeding)