FORMER mayor and councillor Liam Temple - who once campaigned against child abuse - has been found guilty of a sex offence against a young girl.

The 58-year-old Castlefields councillor waited until he had the 12-year-old on her own before offering money to grope her.

"He said if I let him touch me he would give me money," the young girl, who cannot be named, told Chester Crown Court by video link.

"I took it to mean my boobs. He meant all over," the girl, now 13 said. "He kept saying 'I'm not going to hurt you' and 'Name your price, I'll give you as much as you want' but I told him I wasn't that desperate and got out."

Temple was arrested on September 7 last year - five months after the incident took place - and charged with inciting a child under the age of 16 to commit an act of gross indecency.

The Labour councillor, who pleaded not guilty, was not accused of physically touching the girl. He has now resigned as a Halton councillor following the guilty verdict.

The court heard how the victim had gone with her dad to the Labour councillor's home in Fitzwilliam Walk, Castlefields, with scones baked at school.

Temple offered the girl cash in return for being allowed to touch her while she played computer games in his office. Her father had left earlier. He later found out about it from the mother of another girl, in whom his daughter had confided and who urged him to tell police.

But he told the court that although he wanted to 'kick his (Temple's) head in' he didn't report it to the police until August when his daughter began harming herself because 'I knew Liam Temple was a well-respected councillor who knew high-ranking police officers and I didn't think people would believe us'.

Defending Temple, who has since moved to Kingshead Close, Simon Burkeson said the victim and her father made up the story about his client.

Mr Burkeson told them: "You have come here today to tell a pack of lies against him."

Taking the witness stand in a navy blue suit, Temple, a former Ford worker and councillor of 22 years, said because of his position in the community he was always careful not to be left alone with anyone in his house.

"As a councillor I will not meet any single lone person on my own," he said he told police. "If they didn't get what they wanted, anything could be said.

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"The incident never happened," he also told police. "She is telling lies and I can't understand why."

But prosecuting, Simon Mills said Temple tried to make light of the incident in a conversation with the girl's father weeks later during which he allegedly said: "I said to her '£5 for boobs, £10 for anywhere else'. It was just a joke, a test and she told me to get lost".

"This was no more than a few minutes of madness but it amounts to a criminal offence," Mr Mills said.

"Then you tried to minimise what you had done, paper over it by making a joke of it in desperation."

Sitting in the dock, Temple, a grandfather of four, shook his head and rubbed his eyes clearly devastated when the jury of eight men and four women returned a guilty verdict after three hours and 18 minutes by a majority decision of 11-1.

Judge Roger Dutton told him: "You have been convicted of a squalid attempt to obtain sexual gratification from a girl. This is a very serious offence. The country at large and Castlefields in Runcorn in particular are entitled to know the truth."

Temple was granted unconditional bail and will be sentenced on April 29 at Chester Crown Court.