A COURT has heard how an “immature” teaching assistant groomed a teenage girl before arranging clandestine meetings that ultimately led to them kissing.

Jack Taylor was 20 when he and the girl, then 13, began messaging one another via TikTok.

Prosecutor Abul Shakoor said Taylor, now 22, of Sandywood Street, Keighley, commented on one of the girl’s videos, which led to messaging between them.

Messages recovered by the police showed that over the course of a month the two sent messages to one another. He said he was 20 and she said she was about to turn 14.

Over the next few weeks, they exchanged messages on TikTok and Snapchat as well as non-sexual images.

Messages talked about whether they loved each other followed by love and kissing emojis and, later, an aubergine emoji “signifying a penis”.

He described the girl as “cute”, “beautiful”, and his “dream girl”.

Mr Shakoor said: “The defendant told her that he loved her and instructed her to love him back.”

They arranged to meet in person in a secluded area and talked.

The following day, they exchanged messages in which he referred to her as “a dirty bitch”.

She replied that he was the one making it dirty. He then said he would “show her dirty”.

Days later, the girl told her parents she was going to meet a friend but instead met with Taylor. They held hands and kissed with Taylor later saying the kissing was wrong as she was underage and that they would wait until she was 16 “and see how they felt about each other”.

Her parents realised she was not with a friend and when she returned home her father checked her phone to find sexually suggestive messaging with Taylor. The police were informed and officers found pictures on the girl’s phone of her in her underwear.

Taylor was arrested and told police he believed the girl was 16, had met up but left when he realised her true age, and that she had sent photographs of herself in her underwear.

He later pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child.

In a victim personal statement the girl said she had been “flattered” by Taylor but realised later that she had been taken advantage of when she was incapable of understanding. Mr Shakoor said Taylor befriended the girl over a period of time and carried out grooming behaviour.

His Honour Judge Jonathan Gibson told Taylor: “You were gaining the trust of the complainant, which led up to the kiss that you have admitted.

“This is aggravated by the effect that your behaviour had on [her].

“You were probably not very mature at the time, but you were mature enough to be working as a teaching assistant.”

He imposed a two-year community order and said Taylor must engage with the Horizon offender behaviour programme, for men with a sexual conviction, and undertake up to 50 rehabilitation activity requirement days. He also imposed a five-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered him to sign the sex offender’s register.