These are the two Norwich police officers who were commended by a judge for a 'brilliant piece of good old fashioned policing' after helping to uncover a child abductor and rapist who has been jailed for 17 years.

PCs Andy Oliver and Jon Graves spotted Adrian Rose's car, which had heavily blacked out windows, parked on the Broadland Business Park, near Norwich, and after deciding to investigate found a 12-year-old girl inside.

The discovery was to lead to the arrest of Rose who was jailed yesterday after previously being found guilty of grooming a girl so she could meet him to have sex.

Rose, 36, an army sergeant reservist attached to the Royal Military Police in Aldershot, had denied seven counts of rape, six charges of abducting the girl and meeting a child through sexual grooming.

But following a trial at Norwich Crown Court, it took a jury less than two hours to find Rose, previously of St Omars Barrack, Thornhill Road, but now of Rochester Drive, Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex, guilty of all 14 counts.

Jailing Rose, Judge Stephen Holt said his behaviour was 'highly predatory' and had put some careful planning into his actions: 'It's quite clear you had one aim in mind and that was to have sex with an underage girl - a 12 year-old.'

He said if it had not been for a piece of 'good old fashioned' policing in stopping his car he would not have been caught and would have carried on with his behaviour.

He said Rose had met the girl through Blackberry messaging, which he said was particularly useful for paedophiles as once messages had been deleted they could not be retrieved: 'In my judgement you were looking for an underage child and came across this complainant, a child of 12 years old.'

He said that Rose, who posed as being 18 or 19, quickly gained the girl's confidence and said that a report showed he was of high risk of causing serious harm to children.

Judge Holt praised both officers in the case and said if they had not intervened more children could have been 'damaged' by Rose.

Judge Holt also placed Rose on the sex offenders register for life and also made him subject to a sexual offences prevention order, under which he is banned from using Blackberry messaging in the future and also keeps a check on his use of social networking sites.

Judge Holt said that his actions had a 'profound effect' on the victim who was in court with her family to see Rose jailed.

Roger Daniells-Smith, for Rose, said that he was a sad character having lost contact with his family and the army had been his life.

'He has worked all his working life for the army and reached a position of some authority in his section.'

He said the army had supported him during his trial, with a senior officer attending each day of his trial as well as a welfare officer, but now he faced his future on his own as he would effectively be discharged from the army.

'It will be tough for him as a sex offender within a custodial regime. It will be a difficult time for him but he takes it on the chin.'

He said that Rose had sold his house in Essex at a loss and had no assets to pay any costs.

Speaking to the Norwich Evening News PCs Oliver and Graves said they were pleased to have discovered the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, but ultimately were just doing their jobs.

PC Oliver said: 'It's something police officers do every day. You see something out of place in your area and you check it out. It's just not every day you come across an offence like that.

'It's satisfying to take someone like that off the street.'

He added: 'Knowing what I now know I would be extremely surprised if this is the first offending he's done of this nature. I think he was too confident, too polished and I think there's further victims out there.'

PC Graves, who was on patrol with PC Oliver, said: 'It was one of my better days at work. To be able to identify and have positive action on a crime like that. We had a good day. You do that type of thing every day, but its just not every day you come across that type of scenario.'

The court had heard Rose made contact with the girl in Norwich through messaging on their Blackberry phones and he then arranged to come to Norwich to meet up with her before having sex.

But the relationship was discovered when police saw a car being driven by Rose parked on February 19 last year, and when they investigated, found Rose was in the car with the girl.

PC Oliver said: 'We were just doing a final patrol of the beat area prior to finishing work. It's common for us just to cut through the business parks on a weekend and this vehicle was parked up in this peculiar spot with really heavily tinted out windows and so we decided to see who it was and have a chat because it was so much out of place.'

PC Graves said: 'I got out the patrol vehicle to speak to the driver about his car while Andy carried out checks over the radio. He (Rose) tried to distract us from the car itself and that raises alarm bells with me so I conducted further inquiries. 'It was then after having a look inside the car I saw the girl in the back of the car.'

The girl, who had the zip on her trousers slightly down, was then asked by the officers if she was okay and if her parents knew where she was and who she was with.

It was while the officers were taking her back home that the girl, who it was now established was 12 not 13, told them she had met Rose through BBM messaging.

They then carefully tried to ascertain whether or not she understood what was meant by grooming before putting in place a serious sexual offences protocol.

A message was then put out for Rose's vehicle to be stopped which it was by officers in Essex who arrested him.

Speaking after the sentencing, investigating officer Det Con Steve Graves, said that the victim and her family were now wanting to move on with their lives and put the ordeal behind them and said the victim had coped very well.

'I'm hoping she will be able to move on from this. She has shown an immense amount of courage but hopefully she can get some solace in knowing that she may have prevented other victims.'

An army spokesman, also speaking after the sentencing, said: 'Anyone that falls short of the high expectations of the army can expect to be disciplined up to and including dismissal.'