A SCOUT leader who sent explicit messages by text to a teenage girl was last night warned he faces a possible prison sentence.

Benjamin Edward Cockburn, 27, was said to have planned to pick the 14-year-old girl up from school intending to take her home to carry out "practical" sex lessons, putting into action intimate acts referred to in text messages.

Cockburn, of Millford Way, Bowburn, near Durham, a signalling technician for Network Rail, and an Explorer scout leader, denied a charge of inciting the girl to commit an indecent act with him.

But a jury at Durham Crown Court took only 15 minutes on the second day of his trial to return a unanimous guilty verdict.

Judge Michael Cartlidge adjourned sentence for the preparation of reports on Cockburn by the probation service's sex offender team.

He must also sign the Sex Offender's Register, forbidding him from working with children.

Bailing Cockburn to return for sentence in three weeks, Judge Cartlidge told him: "You may go to custody. The fact you have been bailed isn't an indication of whether or not it will be custody."

The court heard that Cockburn's plan was foiled when the girl's mother discovered a written list of his text messages in her bedroom and found out about the proposed rendezvous.

She told her husband, who went to police and Cockburn was arrested, with both his and the girl's mobile phones seized to reveal the messages sent between them.

Cockburn claimed he was relieved that the girl was forced to cancel the arranged meeting, as he was looking at some way of getting out of it, without hurting her feelings.

Earlier, the court heard that the girl had a crush on a 20-year-old friend of Cockburn and regularly sent intimate text messages to him and another man.

Both men gave evidence to say they had returned messages using similar explicit terms.

After they finished giving evidence, Judge Cartlidge called both men, in their early 20s, back into court to admonish them for sending such messages to a 14-year-old girl.

"This was totally unacceptable. It's an utterly wrong thing for an adult to do.

"I'm not sure if you quite understand for an adult to be engaging in this sort of shameful texting with a teenage girl is utterly wrong.

"It must never happen again."