A MOTHER caught a web pervert who exposed himself to her 12-year-old daughter by pretending to be the girl and tricking him out of his email address.

Police found screenshots of other children that Sam Gooden, 24, may have had internet conversations with on his computer when raiding his home in Rayleigh Road, Standford-le-Hope.

Gooden was jailed for three years and six months after admitting inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and making indecent images of children at Basildon Crown Court.

Judge Owen Davies QC, sentencing, said: “The public is rightly outraged by this sort of exploitation of children and this is a serious matter.

“Had it not been for the intervention of the mother, who went into the bedroom at the time, who knows what would have happened?”

Gooden was using the false name of “Callum H” when he met the girl in an internet chat room and asked her to continue the conversation privately on instant email service MSN Messenger in April 2011.

As soon as the girl joined him on MSN Messenger Gooden exposed himself for 30 seconds and asked her to perform a sex act.

At that moment the mother entered and took over the web conversation in her daughter’s place. She asked for Gooden’s email address, which she passed to police.

Gooden will be subject to a sexual offences prevention order indefinitely.