A Suffolk man who persuaded a schoolgirl to take off her clothes in a forest and then took indecent pictures of her has been jailed for four years.

Adrian Conolly had been walking his dog in Lowestoft when he got the girl to strip and then removed his own clothes, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

During the incident Conolly instructed the girl to lie on the ground in a star shape with her legs open and saw him appearing to take pictures of her with his mobile phone, said Lindsay Cox, prosecuting.

After Conolly was arrested police found nine indecent images of children on his Samsung notebook that he had downloaded from the internet.

Conolly, 33, of Lothing Street, Lowestoft pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual activity in the presence of the girl, inciting the girl to engage in sexual activity by taking off her clothes and an offence of taking indecent photographs of her.

He also admitted making nine indecent images of children at level C, which is the lowest category on a scale of A to C.

The offences took place between April 2013 and November 2014.

In addition to being jailed Conolly was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register indefinitely and he was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.

Andrew Thompson, for Conolly, said his client had no previous convictions for sex offences and had been frank with the police.

He described the offending as 'unpleasant' but said his client had confronted his problems and acknowledged he needed help.

He urged the court not to send Conolly straight to prison and to pass a suspended prison sentence with a treatment order instead.