A young man used Facebook to incite a schoolgirl to indulge in a sex act.

He asked for oral sex but it had gone no further, a court heard. A judge said that it was an unusual case of its kind.

Blake Houghton, 23, had not taken it any further and had not “tried it on” with the girl despite having the opportunity to do so.

Houghton, of Palgrave Close in Blacon, Chester, admitted inciting a girl to engage in a sex act in November of last year but he escaped an immediate custodial sentence.

Community order

He received a two year community order with 20 days rehabilitation and 100 hours unpaid work in the community.

The defendant was also ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for five years.

“You were very stupid to get involved in this banter with this young girl,” said Judge David Hale. “There is no suggestion that you carried it through even though you had many opportunities if you had wanted to and if she had wanted to.

“It is all terribly dangerous and you should not do it.”

Unusual case

Judge Hale, sitting at Mold Crown Court, said it was a long way from the usual run of such cases where someone would seek out a vulnerable girl “to meet and to have his way with her”.

He said that she had been perfectly happy to engage in some sexual banter with him but “it went too far”.

Prosecuting barrister Simon Rogers said that the police were concerned when they saw the girl in the company of the defendant and another man in Deeside one night in April.

When they spoke to her parents they believed she was staying with a female friend that night.

Sex messages

But later messages of a sexual nature were found on her Facebook account in which Houghton had asked for oral sex.

Adrian Evans, defending, said it was not a case of a man seeking out a child to prey on her and sexually exploit her.

There had been flirtatious exchanges and Houghton accepted that what he had written was unacceptable.

He said there had been no further messages or pressure put on her and no physical offence had taken place.

Feeling depressed

At the time the defendant was feeling depressed and had his own difficulties including ADHD.

He had been in a psychiatric ward and had low self esteem and not much experience of relationships with the opposite sex.

The probation service had hit the nail on the head when it said in the pre-sentence report that he was immature for his age.