A 25-YEAR-OLD has gone on trial accused of inciting a teenage girl to engage in sexual activity after they met playing Xbox games online.

Martyn Johnson, from Spalding in Licolnshire, denies committing the offence between January 1 and March 24 last year when the complainant was 15.

Opening the case yesterday in Oxford Crown Court, prosecutor Iain Wicks said the two began an online relationship at the end of 2012, but never actually met. He said despite the Oxfordshire teenager telling Johnson her age, their relationship quickly became “sexually driven” and the two started sending each other nude photos.

Mr Wicks told the jury the defendant has admitted three charges of showing indecent images of children, after he posted pictures of the teenager on a website.

But the barrister said Johnson also asked the 15-year-old to touch herself sexually while he watched on a webcam, which she refused to do.

He also allegedly told her he would commit suicide if they broke up and pretended to have taken a drug overdose, Mr Wicks said.

The prosecutor added that someone even contacted the complainant and told her the police wanted to question her on suspicion of attempted murder.

But he said at that point the girl decided “enough was enough” and she told her mum what was going on.

During cross-examination Johnson’s barrister Tony McGeorge suggested to the complainant that she was lying about telling him her age She replied: “I did not tell him that I was 16, I told him that at the time I was not 16, I was 15.”

The trial continues and Johnson is on bail.

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