A PAEDOPHILE who was caught asking a nine-year-old girl to send indecent photographs has been found guilty by a jury.

Christopher Philips stood trial at Oxford Crown Court charged with five counts of child sexual offences which occurred between May and July of 2021.

The 47-year-old was charged after a member of Forbidden Scotland, an online predator hunting team, posed as a 13-year-old girl named Rihanna and reported him to police for alleged sexual communication.

Read the opening of the trial here: 'Your hearts may have sank': Child sex-messaging trial hears charges

After a short trial, a jury returned a verdict less than an hour after retiring.

They found Philips guilty of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, sexual communication with a child, causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and one count of possession of an indecent photograph of a 13-year-old girl.

After Forbidden Scotland reported Philips, his address in Breame Oak Drive, Wheatley, was searched by officers.

It was discovered Philips had been engaged in ‘an enormous number’ of conversations with underage people – including a nine-year-old girl.

READ MORE: Serving Thames Valley officer in court charged with battery

They also found a handwritten note in Philips’s handwriting with the name of a child pornography website.

Upon arrest, he told police he believed the girls he was messaging to be adults.

Philips will now be sentenced at the same court at a later date.