A HISTORY teacher who held a secret meeting with a 14-year-old girl after grooming her in an internet chatroom has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

"Sexual predator" Kenneth Chapman, aged 40, showered the girl with gifts before taking her out for a pub lunch and kissing her.

He was arrested at Rivington and Blackrod High School, where he taught, after the girl's mother found out about the meeting and contacted police.

His home PC, mobile phone and school laptop were confiscated and were later found to contain indecent images of children under the age of 16.

Chapman, who left Rivington and Blackrod High School by mutual agreement last summer, met the girl, who lived 30 miles outside Manchester, in an MSN online chatroom in August, 2005.

He called the girl his "princess" and on one occasion helped her with her history homework over the internet. Their regular weekly contact escalated to mobile phone calls and to her posing for him in front of a webcam, prosecutor Tim Brennand told Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester yesterday.

Chapman, of Shaftsbury Road, Swinton, had pleaded guilty earlier to one charge of meeting the girl following sexual grooming, one of possessing indecent images of children and six of distributing indecent images.

Chapman once served in the army and Judge Roger Thomas QC took into consideration when passing sentence positive references written to the court about his military service and teaching.

But he said: "These offences show a much darker side of you, a side of you that portrays you as a man who is something of a sexual predator and who has a very unhealthy interest in very indecent material.

"This was an escalating and determined piece of grooming.

"You sought to gain the girl's trust by helping her with her schoolwork and so forth.

"You described her as your princess and one can imagine a young and impressionable 14-year-old being swayed by the sort of contact you had with her."

Chapman, who was a well-known runner with Salford Harriers, initially told the girl he was a young man and she said she was over 18 - but both knew each other's true ages soon after their contact began.

The court heard that they met in October, 2005 . Chapman picked the girl up in his sports car, took her for lunch and showered her with gifts. They kissed farewell.

They remained in touch by text, but within weeks the girl's family discovered the relationship and called in the police.

Chapman was arrested at his school in February last year.

Officers found he had stored 18 indecent images of children on his computer - including one that police categorised as most serious - which had since been deleted.

Four of them had been distributed.

Judge Thomas told Chapman he had persuaded the girl to pose for him in front of a webcam wearing few clothes and had told the Probation Service he would have had sex with the girl when they met, had the opportunity arisen.

"It was clearly in your mind as your plea of guilty acknowledges to make contact with a view to sexual contact," the judege said.

He told Chapman the indecent photographs found were "disgusting and degrading material of real children doing the most awful things".

Chapman was placed on the sex offenders' register, which disqualifies him from working with children for the rest of his life.

Detective Sergeant Nick Edge, who investigated the case, said: "Chapman's behaviour was a classic example of the way paedophiles work.

"In this case, the girl's family did the absolute right thing by contacting police and we were able to intervene before anything worse happened."

Detective Inspector Nick Howarth,of the Abusive Images Unit at Greater Manchester Police, said: "Cases like this can strike fear into parents and I do want to stress that the vast majority of internet content is useful and well intentioned.

"However, I would encourage all parents of children who use the internet and chat rooms to educate themselves about the way these things work and to talk to their children about being sensible and safe."