A predatory paedophile who used a social networking website to groom teenage girls has been jailed for nine years.

Benjamin Spratt, 28, a taxi driver from Essex, groomed a 14-year-old girl from Sutton and a 15-year-old girl from Bromley.

He pleaded guilty on Tuesday, March 26, to four counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, two counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of digital and oral penetration of a 14-year-old female at Croydon Crown Court.

He was sentenced on Thursday 25 April.

Your Local Guardian: Croydon Crown Court

Spratt used a teen dating and chat room website, MyLOL.net, during September and October 2011 to approach young girls.

He used his experience as a DJ to build a rapport with teenage girls and to further his relationship with possible victims.

After meeting his 14-year-old victim online he travelled to her home in Sutton to sexually abuse her.

Three days later he turned up at her school and the girl told her teachers he was outside.
The school called the police but Spratt had gone before they arrived.

He was arrested in November 2011 and officers from Scotland Yard’s specialist sex crimes unit, Sapphire Command, examined his computer and found he had been in contact with other young girls.

Officers tracked down a 15-year-old girl from Bromley who told them Spratt convinced her to engage in sexual activity online while he performed a sex act on himself.

Detective Constable John Daly, from Sapphire Command, said: "Benjamin Spratt is a predatory paedophile who has targeted a vulnerable young girl to satisfy his own sexual needs."

Spratt has been placed on the sex offenders register for life and given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for five years.

He was banned from using the internet to talk with children, communicating with any girl under 16 without supervision and must allow the police to examine any device with either internet or digital image storage.