A SPORTS instructor was yesterday convicted of inciting a schoolgirl to engage in sexual activity, despite telling a jury that he thought she was 16.

Andrew McQuade, 31, from Middlesbrough, denied ever seeing the youngster in her school uniform or being told by her that she was aged 14.

But a jury took less than an hour to unanimously find the lifeguard and exercise instructor – who has since lost his job – guilty of two offences.

He will be sentenced at a later date once officials from the Probation Service have compiled a background report.

The jury returned a verdict of not guilty on one of the three charges on the direction of Judge George Moorhouse.

On the second day of his Teesside Crown Court trial, McQuade was asked if he found the girl attractive, and replied: “I thought she was alright.”

Matthew Bean, prosecuting, asked: “Did you want to get into a sexual relationship with her?”. McQuade answered: “If it was offered to me.”

McQuade, of Ampleforth Road, denied three counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

The court heard he sent the schoolgirl explicit email messages in which he asked her for a “threesome” and to send him some “sexy pics”.

He said he was shocked when he later discovered the girl’s age.