A MILKMAN who had sex with a 15-year-old runaway he befriended over the internet has been jailed for seven years.

And Aubrey Carter, who was in the process of grooming another underage girl while he was awaiting trial, will be on licence for an extra three years after his release.

The 42-year-old was also found to have built up a store of images of children as young as three being abused on his phone while he was on a sex offenders' course.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court on Friday how Carter befriended the first girl online when she was just 14.

Early on in their friendship he drove to north London to pick up the vulnerable girl and bring her to his Calne home where she carried out a sex act on him.

He took her back to London, where she is from, and they met on another couple of occasions in the following months.

During their online conversations he asked her if she could bring a friend suggesting he would like to have sex with them both.

In early May 2013 she contacted him by Facebook saying she was sleeping rough in London and asked to stay with him.

Carter sent her a one way e-ticket to get the train to Chippenham and picked her up from the station and took her to his house. 

But officers tracked her down to his house and she told them what had been going on, though he lied about knowing her age saying he thought she was 16.

After his arrest he was found to have indecent images of children.

Magistrates imposed a community order and banned him from contacting young girls or having a phone that could access the internet.

In February this year he was found with a smartphone which had 47 more images of child abuse on it as well as chat logs with another youngster.

The flirtatious messages to the girl, starting when she was 12 and ending when she was 14, suggested they may meet up and that he was paying her phone bill for her.

Carter, of Cornflower Close, Calne, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual activity with a child, two of breaching a sexual offences prevention order, six of making and one of possessing indecent images of children.

Marcus Davey, defending, said his client was aware he was facing a lengthy jail term for what he had done.

He said it was important the court only sentenced him for what he had done and not what it feared he may do.

Jailing him, Judge Peter Blair QC said: "You started having contact with the complainant in the main indictment.

"That came with you looking on the internet and going in to internet chat rooms that revealed she was under 16, probably about 14, when you first started having some contact with her.

"I am of the conclusion from the evidence I see here that you took advantage of her vulnerability and you abused the trust she put in you. You were much, much older than her."

He jailed him for seven years, of which he must serve two thirds, and imposed a three-year extension to the licence.

Carter must also abide by a new sexual offences prevention order and register as a sex offender for life.