A DUTCH paedophile who travelled to Wirral to see a 12-year-old girl he had been grooming online has been jailed for 22 months.

Kristian Timmerman, aged 32, even scaled a 6ft fence to leave a bundle of letters, cash, Easter eggs and USB drives under the family trampoline.

And when police examined the USB drive they discovered graphic images of Timmerman and animals.

Sentencing him Judge Nicholas Woodward said: “This was a sophisticated operation of child grooming in which you used planning, determination and subterfuge to achieve your goals.”

Timmerman, dressed in a red fleece and with his long hair tied in a ponytail, sat quietly throughout the sentencing at Warrington Crown Court on Tuesday.

He had first made contact with his victim in October 2010 through a website using the identity of a Disney animal character and began paying her compliments - telling her she was beautiful and that he loved her.

The youngster never divulged her full address but just the area where she lived.

In April, Timmerman told her he was coming to the UK to drop off videos and wanted to meet her, booking into a bed and breakfast in the area.

Halfway through his stay he managed to track down her address, then left the bundle which was discovered by her parents, including details of where he was stopping and a letter saying he would leave the girl £100,000 in life insurance if he died.

Police arrested him that morning and initially he said he was a charity worker who was helping her.

Later on he admitted he was trying to be friendly but was not motivated by sex.

On his laptop police also found 107 videos of extreme pornography.

Ashley Barnes, defending, said Timmerman only ever intended to kiss and hug the girl but it could be hard to say where that could lead and that the gifts left were an admission to the end of any possible relationship.

He added: “He had brought it to an end, perhaps on the realisation it was never going to come to fruition.”

Judge Woodward handed a 22-month sentence for child grooming and a four-week sentence to run concurrently for possession of extreme pornography.

The mother of the 12-year-old victim said: "We were switched on to the dangers of the internet and have always impressed on our daughter the importance of not speaking to strangers on the streets or online so we were horrified to learn that this individual had managed to reach her.

"We don't want other families to go through what we have experienced and urge parents and guardians to realise that even if they think their child is safe and engaged in seemingly innocent activity on the Internet that there are people like Timmerman out there ready to prey on them.

"This incident has deeply shaken and upset our family and we are grateful to the police for their quick action in taking Timmerman off the street before he could cause any physical harm.

"While we have had a traumatic experience we feel by speaking out we could potentially prevent someone else's child falling victim to someone like Timmerman and urge parents and guardians to monitor everything their child does on the internet."