A VAN driver who abducted a 12-year-old Liss girl he met through a teenage internet chat-room has been jailed for three years.

Richard Wait (31), from Loxwood, took the girl out on a day of deliveries after arranging to meet her through a series of e-mails exchanged on the TeenChat site.

A court heard on Friday that the schoolgirl's mother reported her missing and police were waiting for Wait at her home.

Officers took a note of his number plate and arrested Wait, who described himself as an "internet addict", the following day.

Police seized a computer at his home and discovered 13,800 pornographic images - 30 of which were of children – downloaded from the internet.

Wait admitted abducting the girl on November 6 last year when he appeared at Winchester Crown Court.

He also admitted five charges of permitting indecent photographs to be taken of children.

The court heard how Wait had met the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on the chatroom site when he was having problems with his marriage.

Michelle Clarke, prosecuting, said: "The girl in this case was 12 at the time of this offence.

"About three weeks before the abduction, Wait had started talking to her via the chatroom, and matters progressed from there.

"They then exchanged e- mail addresses and started corresponding frequently by e-mail.

"During the course of the e-mails and just before this defendant met up with this girl he professed his love to her."

Miss Clarke said that on the morning of November 6 last year Wait had telephoned the girl to arrange a meeting with her.

The pair met at Liss railway station and initially the girl was nervous about what would happen.

Wait and the girl sat in his van, where they chatted and the girl found him to be "nice and understanding".

Miss Clarke said she then accompanied Wait, who worked for British Aerospace, on deliveries to Petersfield, Gosport and Bournemouth International Airport.

The alarm was raised when the girl's sister returned to their home in Liss and discovered the 12-year-old was missing.

Miss Clarke said: "Her mother immediately came home and reported her daughter missing to police.

"Officers attended and having checked the area came back to the family home and it was there that an officer saw a van stop.

"The girl walked down an alleyway from the van towards her home address and he took the registration number of the van down."

Wait told police that he had become addicted to surfing the internet.

She said: "He said he was actively going to various sites looking for teenagers in their late teens.

"lt must be said that the girl had told the defendant that she was 15."

Miss Louise D'arcy, defending, told Judge Patrick Hooton that at the time of the offence Wait was having problems with his marriage.

She said: "He found that using a chat room was a way of talking through the difficulties he was having with his wife.

"This led to him using the internet more and more and he effectively calls it an addiction."

Miss D'Arcy added: "At no stage did he intend to deceive the girl and at all times he believed that she was 15 years of age."

Judge Hooton jailed Wait for two years for the abduction and 12 months to run consecutively for permitting indecent photographs.

He said: "I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that you availed yourself of a teen chatroom so that you could contact very young girls and if possible you could have some sort of sexual relationship with them.

"True it is to say that nothing of a sexual nature actually took place with this girl, but the fact is that it was on your mind."

Wait was also placed on the sexual offenders' register for seven years.