A TEENAGER who questioned a 14-year-old about her underwear after meeting her on social media has been sentenced in court.

Curtis Brooks was aged 18 when he engaged the schoolgirl in sexual conversations.

He has now been placed on the sex offenders’ register and sentenced to do 120 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty, at Bolton Crown Court, to sexual communication with a child.

Judge Graeme Smith heard how the girl was aged 12 when she first encountered Brooks, now aged 21, by accidentally sending him a friend request on social media.

The court was told that Brooks was aware that the girl was at school, but she had claimed she was 14, and the pair messaged each other up to four times a week.

But Alison Mather, prosecuting, said her attempts to Facetime, voice call and have him send pictures of himself went unanswered.

Communication ended when the girl had her phone confiscated but resumed in July 2018 when Brooks created a new Facebook profile and sent her a friend request.

Miss Mather said, over a four week period in July 2017, they messaged each other, with Curtis, who had claimed he was aged 16, asking about her underwear and whether she had a place where they could be alone together.

Curtis, of Mobberley Road, Breightmet, was caught after the girl went to stay with her aunt.

Police were contacted when the aunt spotted messages on the schoolgirl’s phone calling her “my babe”.

Mark Friend, defending, told the court that the sending of the messages to the child was “inappropriate”.

“It was poor judgement on his part,” said Mr Friend, who added that Curtis was staying with his girlfriend’s family at the time and was “spending more time than was good for him on social media”.

The Bolton News: SENTENCE: Bolton Crown CourtSENTENCE: Bolton Crown Court

Judge Smith sentenced him to a community order for three years and ordered him to participate in 30 days of rehabilitation activities and a sexual offences treatment programme.

He told Curtis: “It was quite clear there was deceit involved on both sides.

“She was saying she was 14 when, in fact she was 12. From your side, you were saying initially you were 16 when you were, in fact, somewhat older than that.

“Whatever the rights and wrongs of that, the fact was that you were the adult in this course of conduct and even if you believed that she was 14, you knew full well that you should not have been engaging in that form of communication with her.”