A TEENAGER with learning difficulties has admitted sending dozens of texts trying to get a 12-year-old girl to send him indecent pictures of herself.

Peter Milnes, aged 19, of Bath Road, Worcester, admitted inciting a girl aged under 13 to engage in sexual activity by “repeatedly asking” the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to take and send the images when he appeared before magistrates in Worcester on Tuesday.

The offences took place between May 31 and June 9 last year and involved 26 text messages from Milnes to the victim.

Mark Johnson, prosecuting, said the defendant tried “to persuade the injured party to send naked photographs of herself to him”.

He said: “There’s quite a significant age difference.

“My understanding is that the defence is because the defendant has learning difficulties.

“The obvious worrying aspect of this is that clearly it does demonstrate that the defendant has developed a prurient sexual interest in a 12-year-old girl.”

Aggravating features were the age of the girl and the persistent nature of the messages, he said.

David Ollivere, defending, said: “There is a potential issue with regard to the basis of plea and we hope it will resolve itself within the next five weeks.

“He is a 19-year-old man with no previous convictions. He’s a young man who suffers with learning difficulties.

“The complainant in this case is 12 years of age. He was, at the relevant time, 18 years of age.

“It will, in my respectful submission, make a difference to the sentence whether his psychological age is below 18 though it won’t absolve him from culpability.”

Milnes will be sentenced at Worcester Magistrates Court on Wednesday, April 10, giving the probation service time to prepare a pre-sentence report.

A psychological report to establish the defendant’s mental age will also be provided and the interview disc needs to be provided by the prosecution to the defence. Milnes was bailed on condition he did not contact the alleged victim, did not access social networking sites, did not have any unsupervised contact with a female under the age of 16, including family members, and that he sign the sex offenders register.