A POLICE community support officer who groomed a 15-year-old girl hoping to get her into bed has been jailed for 15 months.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that bizarrely Kevin Smith's behaviour only came to light after her father asked for a policeman to come round to have a word with her after she had gone missing.

Because of staff shortages Merseyside police sent two PCSOs round, including Smith, and the schoolgirl was horrified to find him sitting in her lounge.

When her father later quizzed her about dozens of text messages on her mobile phone from "Kev" she confessed that they were from Smith.

When quizzed by police Smith denied knowing she was 15 and he faced a trial denying meeting a child following sexual grooming but during this forensic scientists agreed to try to retrieve deleted text messages she had sent him.

A computer software programme had to be specially written and this led to some being retrieved in which she repeatedly told him she was only 15.

He consequently changed his plea to guilty and sentence was adjourned until today.

Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday that 70-plus texts he had sent including telling her she was sexy.

But Smith maintained today that he had not intended having intercourse with her and thought that when they met he might just put his arm around her and kiss her.

After hearing from him Judge Mark Brown firmly rejected his claims.

"He told lie after lie in the course of these proceedings and I am satisfied he lied because he sought to cover up his actions from start to finish."

Jailing 25-year-old Smith, the judge said: "It was your duty to uphold the law and set a good example to other citizens.

"The main dimension of seriousness was your intention to abuse your position as a PCSO to impress and cause her to be attracted to you.

"To be attracted to you so that when you went to meet it was your hope that sexual intercourse would occur."

He said that the girl had acted more like an adult than Smith had and had refused to meet him repeatedly pointing out she was only 15 and after he kept pestering her gave him fake address to which he went hoping to have sex with her.

The incident put enormous strain on her family relationships and almost "tore the family apart".

Her GCSE results were adversely affected by the incident in May last year and she no longer trusts boys, he said.

Smith, of Delamere Avenue, Eastham, who had hoped to become a policeman, looked shocked as he was jailed.

He was also ordered to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and was made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Hilary Manley, prosecuting, had told the court that Smith's behaviour involved a "gross breach of trust."

Smith met the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, outside a medical centre in Leasowe, Wirral on May 14 last year while he was on uniformed patrol.

He asked for her phone number but she gave him one with an incorrect digit.

He managed to guess the right number and after he rang later that day she texted him to see who had rung.

He then repeatedly texted her into the early hours of the morning asking to meet her and take her for a drive.

She reminded him about his job and her age and after a further text at noon when she again refused to meet him he stopped contacting her.

But ten days later on May 25 they were again in text contact while she was with a friend.

These became more sexual in tone and content and she pretended they were at a house party. He got a taxi there at 2.30am but found it was a hoax.

Four days later the girl went missing after a row at home and her father called the police.

When he discovered she was at a friend's home he rang the police to tell them and ask if an officer could have a word with her - and Smith was deployed there with a colleague, said Miss Manley.

Gerald Baxter, defending, said that Smith, whose testimonials described him as hard working and ambitious, accepted it had been a breach of trust.

He would not have forced the girl into sexual activity and in fact they did not meet up as the girl "had the measure of him" and she and her friend made a fool of him by sending him to the wrong address.