A pervert drove 100 miles to meet up and have sex with a schoolgirl after seducing her online, a court heard.

Paedophile Harrison Langford left his home in Milton Keynes to meet up with the teenager who he had groomed after meeting her via a chatroom.

The 28-year-old had booked a hotel room in Maidstone for a sex session, which included spanking and choking his shy victim.

Now a judge has heard how a friend of the victim alerted her parents, and the sex fiend – who had secretly trawled chatrooms to look for children – was arrested by police still lying on his hotel bed.

Judge Oliver Saxby KC said: "One can only imagine the thoughts going through the mother's head as she tried in vain to make contact with her daughter.

"Driven by a warped sexual appetite, which you were capable of controlling but chose not to, you inflicted every parent's worst nightmare, causing incalculable damage on your victim."

He added that the caring parents "could have done no more" in trying to protect their daughter, monitoring internet use and he praised them, the person who raised the alarm and the speed of the police reaction in arresting the pervert.

Langford, who worked in marketing and had a live-in partner, has been given an immediate five-year jail sentence and told he will have to serve two-thirds before he can be considered for parole.

Judge Saxby KC then added another three years which he will serve on licence when he is released.

Prosecutor Bridget Todd told Maidstone Crown Court how the schoolgirl had been "a shy teenager, lacking in self-confidence".

But on Snapchat he began sexually grooming her by asking for naked photographs of her before driving to Kent in September this year.

He claimed to have been 20 years old and the victim said she was 15, although that wasn't true.

The prosecutor said her parents believed she was meeting friends but Langford met his victim in Larkfield Leisure Centre.

The following day the two met again. Both days, he sexually abused her.

After going for a walk in Mote Park, Maidstone, they agreed to meet the following week when he took her to his hotel room where they twice had sex, after buying condoms.

Ms Todd said this took place as her mother had been making frantic calls to her after being alerted by a friend of the victim's rendezvous with a man.

She said: "The parents called the police and officers went to the hotel and went to the room where he was lying in bed."

The victim was later examined by a doctor who discovered a number of bruises on her body consistent with his claims he had choked and spanked the child.

The mother – who was in court to watch the hearing – revealed in a victim impact statement: "That day changed the lives of my family and totally destroyed my trust in the world."

John Fitzgerald, defending, said Langford accepted that what he had done was wrong and regretted his actions.

The judge told Langford, who had admitted four child sex offences involving grooming: "In a three-week period in September you shattered the lives of your victim and her family,

"You have an entrenched interest in girls aged between eight and 15 and, for some time, had been contacting them online."

Langford, of King Street, Milton Keynes, had confessed to a probation officer that he had spent an extended time chatting with young girls and had become "preoccupied with fantasies about them."

Speaking after the hearing, investigating officer PC Marcus Easter, from the West Kent Vulnerability Investigation Team, said: "Langford purposefully targeted and groomed a child. He repeatedly subjected her to sexual abuse, exploiting her for his own gratification, all the while fully aware of the profound and lasting damage his actions would have.

"We are grateful to the victim for her bravery in coming forward and hope that today’s sentencing offers her some comfort.

"Kent Police is committed to tackling all forms of child sexual exploitation and protecting those at risk, and we have dedicated teams working across the county to support victims and convict offenders."