A caretaker at a Suffolk school who sexually 'groomed' a 13-year-old schoolgirl after meeting her on a social networking site has been jailed for three years.

Carl Morgan, who worked at Pakefield High School, near Lowestoft, exchanged sexually explicit messages with the teenager and got her to send him intimate pictures of herself, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Edward Renvoize, prosecuting, said Morgan got to know the girl, who was not a pupil at the school where he was working, on a social networking site in August 2014.

The relationship was initially platonic but developed to the stage where they were exchanging sexually explicit texts and photographs.

On one occasion Morgan found out from social media that she was meeting a friend and had turned up and asked the girl for a kiss and a hug, said Mr Renvoize.

Contact between them ended in July last year after the girl became concerned about Morgan's persistence in contacting her.

Morgan had resigned from his job and handed himself into the police after his partner found letters he had written to the girl, the court heard.

Morgan, 35, who was living in Lowestoft but now has an address in West Sussex, admitted inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and making indecent pictures of children.

Jailing him for three years, Judge Rupert Overbury told Morgan there was 'significant planning' involved.

'A girl of that age shouldn't be subjected to such behaviour in any shape or form,' said the judge.

Morgan was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register indefinitely and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

Daniel Taylor, representing Morgan, said his client had no previous convictions and was remorseful.