PARENTS have been urged to monitor their children’s online lives after a man seduced a 13-year-old girl on Facebook before meeting her in a hotel.

Kier Luke, 36, communicated with the teenager through the website and phone texts before they went to the cinema and spent the night together.

He worked at the Ex-Servicemen’s Club, in Sheep Street, Bicester, when he met the girl, who cannot be identified.

Luke, of Holly Close, Bicester, was convicted by a jury of meeting a child following sexual grooming and making indecent images of children and was jailed for 18 months at Oxford Crown Court on Friday.

He was also given a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order and must sign the sex offenders’ register for a decade.

The meeting, at the Cromwell Hotel in Banbury, took place on November 16, 2009, and the indecent images – which were not of the girl – had been downloaded between July 2004 and November 2009.

Sally Mealing-McLeod, prosecuting, said: “The initial approach came from the defendant. He indicated that this relationship would have carried on had it not been found out by her friends telling the assistant headmistress.”

She said police found text and Facebook messages that “were clearly of a sexual nature”, including one from Luke saying “I could take all your clothes off”.

Ms Mealing-McLeod added: “The actions of the defendant are typical of someone who is grooming.

“It appears he still doesn’t accept he did anything wrong, which is worrying.”

The images of child pornography were described by Judge Mary Jane Mowat as “curiosity browsing quite a long time ago that didn’t indicate an obsession with underage girls”.

Tony McGeorge, defending, said: “When they spent this night together in the hotel, nothing of a sexual nature seems to have occurred at all.”

Judge Mowat described the victim as “a very willing girl of 13”, but added: “In the course of her evidence she did describe feelings of discomfort, feelings of being a bit dirty when things went physical”.

She continued: “She liked to look more old and more sophisticated than her age. She was rebelling against her parents and school.

“Things were certainly heading towards what can only be described as an affair between the two of them.”

Last night, Claude Knights of the Kidscape charity said: “This case illustrates the manner in which a vulnerable young person can be groomed online.

“However ‘willing’ the victim appeared to be, she is the child, and the adult must be held responsible for the situation that developed.

“It is encouraging key people acted appropriately and that the relationship was nipped in the bud. It is also heartening that Luke was given a sentence which gives out a strong message.

“Such cases serve as a reminder to young people that they must do all they can to use the Internet safely.”