AN ‘arrogant’ 19-year-old who photographed himself groping an underage girl has been jailed for a year.

And when Aramis Ferrari realised the 15-year-old had a boyfriend he sent him a goading Facebook message along with the indecent picture he had taken.

Rob Welling, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the girl had made her age clear to the defendant when they first corresponded online a few days before Christmas.

Ferrari then persuaded her to meet up with him on Monday, December 28, in a local park where he began to hug and kiss her, making all the running, the court heard.

“He said he was cold and suggested they go to his grandmother’s house, which was nearby,” he said.

It was there that Ferrari removed the girl's clothes and took photographs.

The girl said she had not realised he was doing as she had her hands over her face at the time.

Mr Welling said Ferrari’s gran then told them to come downstairs, and when he did he saw the girl’s Facebook profile, which indicated she had a boyfriend.

The defendant then sent him a series of messages saying she was cheating on him before sending him the picture he had taken.

When he was first questioned he refused answer any questions but then wrote a letter to the police telling them how being arrested had shaken him up.

In a second interview he told officers that she had made all the running and that the picture was not of the girl, but one he got off the internet.

But when it was put to him there may be DNA evidence he accepted what he had done.

As a result of what she had been through, the court heard that the girl had become less trusting of others.

Ferrari, of Frobisher Drive, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child, and taking and distributing an indecent image of a child.

Clare Fear, defending, said despite the view of the probation officer who wrote the pre-sentence report her client was full of remorse and was only 18 at the time.

She said it was not uncommon for teenagers to send messages including naked pictures these days, adding it was a ‘moment of madness,’ when he did it.

“The complainant has been under stress, and distressed, he also has found the whole experience extremely difficult,” she said.

Jailing him, Judge Peter Blair QC said: “In the pre-sentence report interview it says ‘Mr Ferrari told me that the victim was eager to engage in more sexual behaviour, insisting she was completely relaxed’.

“Her witness statement is one in which she said she told you repeatedly to stop.

“Though I am told today you take full responsibility, that history just shows you have done everything in your powers to limit responsibility for serious sexual behaviour.

“What I can’t get around is that you continued to come across, even to the probation officer, as an arrogant young man who has no awareness of the circumstances of the selfishness of your behaviour.

“It is important for anyone to know in this town and across the country that this sort of behaviour on people under 16 will be met with very severe punishment and you are relatively lucky to only receive 12 months today.”

As well as a 12-month sentence he told him must also register as a sex offender for the next 10 years.