A paedophile police constable who raped a 13-year-old girl is due to be sentenced today.

Ian Naude was warned to expect a significant jail sentence when he was found guilty at Liverpool Crown Court last month of raping and sexually assaulting the teenager, who he met while serving with Cheshire Police.

The trial heard the 30-year-old, of Market Drayton in Shropshire, joined the force in April 2017 and had ambitions of working in a unit dealing with vulnerable youngsters.

He was said to be obsessed with taking the virginity of teenage girls and groomed victims over social media.

He would blackmail and threaten vulnerable girls, persuade them to send pictures of themselves undressed, tell them to call him "daddy" and send them videos of himself masturbating.

He had denied raping his victim, telling the jury the sex was consensual and she "seemed to be enjoying it".

The court heard he had met the girl when he was called to a domestic incident at her home in October last year and days later picked her up in his car and raped her in the back seat, filming the assault on his phone.

The jury found him guilty of a further four charges of attempting to arrange commission of a child sex offence and one charge of arranging commission of a child sex offence.

Naude will also be sentenced for 30 offences which he admitted, including inciting children to engage in sexual activity, making indecent photos of children and misconduct in a public office.

Following last month's verdicts, it was revealed Naude was named as a suspect in cases in neighbouring forces before he took up a post with Cheshire Police.

The force said the father-of-one's appointment was delayed from January 2017 to April because he was alleged to have raped a woman in Staffordshire.

No further action was taken in the case and Naude was allowed to join but reports of child grooming in Staffordshire and West Mercia which named him as a suspect in January and February 2017 were not picked up by Cheshire Police until after his arrest in November that year.

Acting chief constable Janette McCormick said processes had been changed since Naude's arrest.