������̳

A maths teacher who sent explicit messages - including an indecent video of himself - to officers posing as 12 and 13-year-old girls has been jailed.

Khaled Miah, 40, believed he was communicating with the girls when he was actually talking to police.

At Luton Crown Court Miah, of Belswains Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, admitted several offences.

Judge Barbara Mensah, jailing him for 16 months, said: "Just because a child is fictional you are still culpable."

Miah, a teacher for more than 18 years, was head of maths at a secondary school in Luton when he began chatting to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl called Daisy on WhatsApp in November last year.

He asked the girl sexual questions and sent her explicit pictures of himself.

After his arrest, when the police examined his iCloud drive, they found two indecent images of a 13 to a 15-year-old girl posing in a mirror.

Miah was also caught sending explicit messages to a second fictitious girl set up by officers, a 12-year-old called Zoe, while under investigation.

He pleaded guilty to two charges of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, four of attempting to engage a child in sexual communication and two of possessing Category C child sex abuse images and was sentenced to 16 months in jail.

Judge Mensah said Miah "clearly had an interest in young girls".

She said: "There was clearly grooming in both cases.

"You have let down your family, community and your school."

Miah must also sign the sex offenders register and abide by the terms of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.