A MAN was exposed as a sex pervert after the mother of a 14-year-old girl found revealing text messages on her daughter's mobile phone.

Michael Ball claimed his son must have sent the messages before confessing he and the girl had indulged in sexual intercourse, Worcester Crown Court heard.

In a separate incident, a woman caught the girl performing a sex act with him, said prosecutor Nicolas Cartwright.

Ball, 49, of Spencer Street, Kidderminster, was jailed for 12 months. He pleaded guilty to unlawful sex and indecency with a child.

The victim's mother suspected a problem after the girl played truant from school.

When she went to use her daughter's phone in February last year, she found two messages saying the caller could not wait for more sexual behaviour with the teenager. The messages were traced to Ball's phone.

Mr Cartwright said he tried to keep the crimes secret by making threats that he knew some very unpleasant people. The police were informed but Ball refused to comment in an interview.

Defence counsel Samantha Powis aid he later accepted he had sex with the teenager a number of times when her mother was at work.

She went on: "It took time for him to come to terms with his criminality. He found it very difficult to accept the real gravity of it. He now expresses self disgust and loathing.

"He doesn't seek to justify what he did. He is deeply sorry and the hope is that the girl is not affected for the rest of her life."

The jail term would probably mean he would never see his terminally ill sister ever again.

Judge Frank Chapman told Ball: "Everyone would think this is disgusting. There's no excuse for what you did. You exploited this girl and became her lover."

He ordered Ball to be placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.