A paedophile who thought he was chatting to a 13-year-old girl online when he sent her sexual images and videos.

Ansar Nadeem, 56, from Blackburn, was actually talking to an undercover police officer posing as a girl named Poppy – but he did not know this.

Nadeem spoke to ‘Poppy’ on Chatiw and on Kik Messenger. On Chatiw, ‘Poppy’ had her age set to 18, the youngest the service would allow, but told Nadeem she was 13 and was from Aberdeen in Scotland.

Peter Barr, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said the two chatted about friendship initially but the conversation soon became sexual.

More conversations happened over the following days when Nadeem would send Poppy videos of sexual acts, and he also sent two clothed pictures of himself.

In another conversation, he said he would like ‘Poppy’ “in his lap.”

Nadeem was arrested at his home on Aberdeen Drive, Blackburn, on October 17, 2022, where he told officers he knew what he had done was wrong.

A Samsung mobile phone was seized, and upon analysis was found to contain 33 indecent images of children.

Twelve of these were Category A, the most serious, eight were Category B, and 13 were Category C. There were 10 moving images and the rest were still images.

Police also found Nadeem had distributed some of these images to others, described as “like-minded people” by Judge Phillip Parry.

Nadeem pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to look at an image of sexual activity, three counts of making indecent images; and three counts of distributing indecent images.

Anna Chestnutt, mitigating, said there had been a significant delay in the case which was no fault of Nadeem’s.

Judge Parry, sentencing, said he was “quite sure” Nadeem believed he was communicating with a child.

Nadeem was sentenced to four years and six months in prison.

He will be subject to notification requirements for life and was given a sexual harm prevention order.