A PAEDOPHILE who told an eight-year-old girl he loved her in private Facebook messages and was caught kissing her has been convicted of sexual assault.

Paul Dempster, 49, gushed over social media that he missed the schoolgirl and repeatedly asked the child to phone him.

He called her “babycakes” and was caught kissing the child on the lips on a number of occasions between February and May 2013.

Dempster – a friend of the child’s family – was visiting the house in the north of Glasgow when he preyed on the girl.

He denied the assault charge and claimed he treated her like a family member, but was convicted by a jury at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Before going on trial he pleaded guilty to a string of charges including vandalising the girl’s dad’s car on two occasions in May 2013 and twice failing to turn up at court in July 2014.

He also admitted that between May and July 2013 charges of damaging property not belonging to him, stalking a 20-year-old former colleague who rejected him, driving without insurance or an MOT and breaching bail.

The court watched a taped police interview from 2013 of the then eight-year-old girl.

She told the court Dempster gave her hugs and kisses that were “sometimes on the cheek, sometimes on the lips”.

Sentence was deferred until later this month and he was remanded in custody.