A transgender woman has been jailed again for messaging teenage girls.

Abigail Waller returned to the dock just three years after she was jailed for child sex offences under her birth name Jamie.

The 29-year-old from Gosport, who now likes to be called 'Abi', breached court-imposed conditions by messaging three schoolgirls on Facebook - using her wife's phone.

Jurors at Portsmouth Crown Court heard that Waller set up a fake profile on her wife's phone called Jake Smith with photos of an 'attractive' young man.

She used it to lure in the 13 and 14 year old girls in August 2022.

The sex predator told them that she was 14 and that they were 'so pretty' and 'really beautiful'.

Waller, who now has long dark hair in a pony tail and wore a pink floral dress during her trial, tried to argue her wife of nine years was behind the messages.

But, the sex offender - formerly a disability care worker - has been jailed again, this time for three and a half years.

Waller, from Gosport, was first jailed at Portsmouth Crown Court for five years in 2020 after admitting a string of 'serious' child sex offences.

She was arrested for these in November 2019 at her workplace in Dunelm, Southampton.

The offences included blackmailing a 13-year-old girl into sending Waller sexual photos of herself, and having the child call Waller 'sir' or 'daddy'.

At court in 2020, Waller was given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order [SHPO], banning any contact with children under 18 and the use of devices connected to the internet unless Waller informed police about them.

In September 2021, while in prison, the paedophile started identifying as a woman, the court heard.

In May 2022, Waller was released from jail half-way through the sentence and was taken back by her wife Mrs Waller at their home in Gosport.

But within three months, Waller had started her 'grooming process' again and messaged the girls on Facebook.

Waller was caught by police on August 4, 2022, when officers visited the house for a separate reason and discovered Waller hiding her wife's pink Samsung phone in her lap.

Mrs Waller said the Samsung was a secondary phone which she mainly used as an alarm clock and denied ever using the Jake Smith Facebook profile.

She told the court she had decided to divorce Waller.

Defendant Waller told jurors she preferred to be called 'Abi' and that she was waiting to be seen by a gender identity clinic.

Waller has been serving time at men's prisons - HMP The Verne on Isle of Portland, Dorset, and HMP Winchester, Hants.

Giving evidence, Waller claimed she 'didn't send messages' to the young girls, 'didn't recognise them', and suggested her wife was behind a plot to frame her to 'set me up'.

Waller said: "The only person who I know had access to [the phone] was my wife.

"We were arguing quite a lot, there were difficulties. As far as I was aware, we were still together.

"I believe [Mrs Waller sent the messages] to maybe get me in trouble, to get me put back in."

Waller added: "She knows that I have been in trouble for it before in the past.

"I believe she was actually in another relationship with another, current boyfriend that she is with at this time and she wanted me out of the way without telling me."

Waller also claimed she is no longer aroused by children.

"I had a sexual interest in young girls, not anymore", she said.

"I've done offending behaviour courses whilst I was inside."

Waller was convicted by a jury of four counts of breaching a SHPO.

Prosecuting, Tim Dracass said: "Had the police not intercepted this phone when they did so, the crown submits it may well have been that there was a risk that serious harm could have taken place."

Ellie Fargin, defending, asked the judge to consider how Waller will cope in prison as an inmate who identifies as female and given her ADHD and autism.

Judge Michael Bowes KC jailed Waller for three and a half years, saying that her messages were a 'pre-cursor to what Waller had in mind'.

Sentencing Waller, Judge Bowes KC said: "The messages themselves would appear to be fairly innocuous, but I am satisfied they were part of a grooming process.

"[The messages] were to gain their trust, with a view to take matters further and that's part of the gravity of these offences.

"At your trial, you denied matters, seeking to blame your wife, but the jury convicted you."