Many of the messages were of an explicit nature.
Mazhar Hussain, aged 38, of Stechford, Birmingham, was jailed for three years and three months for grooming a teenage girl. The ex-teacher gave her gifts before sexually abusing her.
Birmingham Crown Court heard that the matter came to light after the girl told police about the grooming.
The girl, who was 14, had believed that she had entered into a marriage with Hussain following an over-the-phone ceremony.
Hussain referred to the girl as his “wife”.
After Hussain “gifted” the girl the phone, over 2,200 message exchanges between the pair happened between April 15, 2018, and May 18, 2018.
Many of the messages were of an explicit nature.
The messages also revealed that Hussain had met the teenager and sexual activity had taken place.
On a number of occasions, Hussain and the girl referred to each other as husband and wife.
Hussain, an ex-teacher, had also given the victim a bracelet as a birthday gift.
The 2018 abuse came to light after speaking with a family friend about Hussain’s grooming. The girl then contacted police and explained her ordeal.
Hussain was arrested later that day.
At an earlier hearing, Hussain pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual activity with a child under the age of 16.
On March 22, 2021, Hussain was sentenced to three years and three months in prison.
Birmingham Mail reported that Hussain was also put on the sex offenders register and given a sexual harm prevention order for life.
Detective Constable Dave Cooper, of West Midlands Police’s Public Protection Unit, said:
“We must commend this girl for having the courage to tell us about what was happening to her.”
“We were able to support her with specially trained officers as the case progressed and her evidence proved crucial in ensuring Hussain has now been jailed.
“We also hope that this sentencing will encourage other youngsters who may be being groomed to be brave enough to come forward and let us help and support them too.”
In a previous incident, an ex-teacher was jailed for sending sexual messages to children.
Khaled Miah had targeted young girls with explicit messages, images and videos.
He had been living and working in Luton in November 2019, when he first used an online chat site to talk to someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.
He took her number and began a conversation with her on WhatsApp.
Miah spoke to her in a highly sexualised manner and sent her sexual images and a video of himself.
A proactive police operation resulted in his arrest a few days later. Miah was released under investigation.
Miah was arrested for a second time in June 2020, when the Internet Child Abuse Investigation Team (ICAIT) discovered that he had been talking to someone he believed to be 12-years-old in the same way and using similar methods.
His phone was seized and officers found indecent images of children saved to cloud storage that was linked to Miah’s device.
On July 13, 2020, Miah was jailed for 16 months. The former teacher was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.
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