A TEENAGER who sent naked pictures to a 15-year-old girl on Facebook has avoided a jail sentence.

Joshua Luke Caine, 19, spoke to the victim every day on the messaging site before asking her to be his girlfriend and sent her naked pictures of himself below the waist.

He was handed a community order at Hereford Magistrates Court last week and ordered to take part in a community sex offenders programme.

The teenager from Grandison Rise, Tupsley, Hereford, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing a child aged 15 to look at an image of sexual activity between November 1 and December 18 last year.

Lesley Ashton, prosecuting at an earlier hearing said the pair became Facebook friends in 2013 after meeting in a public setting.

“They then started talking on Snapchat which allows users to send pictures of anything they want with a caption on it,” added Ms Ashton.

“Not long after she had a naked picture of him sent to her via Facebook with a message asking if that was alright.

“Following messages from him which were suggestive the victim asked him to stop. A short time after this he sent a another naked picture of himself on Skype which was a similar picture.

“Caine also sent her a sexual explicit message. The victim was absolutely horrified and couldn’t read it all but told her mum and showed it to her. The police were then informed.”

On interview Caine admitted sending the messages to her.

Neil Coulson, mitigating said that the act by Caine was ‘impulsive’ and not planned.

He said: “You are dealing with young people and hormones comes into the equation, the signs were misread and a misunderstanding lead to the situation.

"The man was only 18 at the time and the age gap between them was not significant. There were underlining issues that Caine was going through which was that he was bullied out of his college placement.

“A friendship developed as they spoke about both of their different lives. His life has changed because of those issues and he now does part-time work.

"He has also done voluntary work and is a qualified football referee but these proceedings will impact on everything positive in his life."

Caine was also handed a restraining order against the victim and told to register at Hereford Police Station for five years.

He was also ordered to pay £100 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.