A PERVERT who groomed a 14-year-old girl on the internet and persuaded her to meet him for sexual liaisons has been jailed for two years.

Michael Saunders first contacted the teenager on the social networking site Facebook then started chatting to her daily on an internet chat-room.

The 22-year-old made explicit sexual comments to her, asked her to send him naked pictures of herself and even asked if her could rape her.

Saunders then got the girl, who he knew before chatting to her on the internet, to come to his house where they engaged in sexual activity.

His crimes only came to light months later when the victim’s dad found messages on his daughter’s computer and confronted Saunders before reporting him to the police.

Last night the dad told how Saunders actions had “devastated” the family and warned other parents to be sure they know who their children talk to online.

He said: “The family have been devastated by this. This man was old enough to know what he was doing. He took advantage of our daughter and his actions have hurt our family greatly. She is still having counselling.

“I would like to warn other parents to be aware of what their children are up to on the internet.

“They need to be aware who their children are friends with on chat-rooms and social networking sites. We had spoken to our daughter about online safety but you can’t monitor what they are doing 24 hours a day. People can infiltrate your home through the internet, that is what happened here.”