Richard John Wilson, 69, also told Probation he had a sexual preference for girls aged between 7 and 16, and liked looking at them in public.
Wilson appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after a jury earlier found him guilty of four charges of exposing a young person to indecent material.
The court heard that in 2022, the defendant met the then-15-year-old victim through a sporting group.
He asked for her email, which led to hundreds of messages over the next few months.
He also gave her a phone to facilitate further communication in secret.
Wilson sent inappropriate messages telling the victim she had a "great body and personality" and that he would meet her at the school gates to make her a "scarlet woman" (a sexually promiscuous lady).
He also sent her a link to a pornographic video and asked her to send him a picture of her in her school uniform without her blouse on.
The court heard following this Wilson "almost always" brought up pornography in conversation despite the victim telling him she did not want to discuss that.
Crown prosecutor Clementine Flatley described Wilson’s offending as "extended grooming behaviour".
She said the defendant did not accept his conduct was wrong and therefore did not have good prospects of rehabilitation.
The court heard Wilson blamed the girl’s parents for his charges and said if they had not taken opposition to his and the girl’s "friendship" he would not be in prison.
He said the encounters with the victim felt "naughty" and compared it to peering over a fence.
Counsel Brendan Stephenson said his client had abstained from similar offending for years and these crimes were not the most serious of their kind.
He accepted Wilson’s address was not suitable for home detention as it was close to a school.
Judge Michael Turner noted the "enormous age gap" and the vulnerability of the victim.
"No doubt she saw you as a grandfather-type figure, someone who had experienced life and someone she could relate to," the judge said.
"Your grooming was very carefully crafted."
The victim told the court she was naive and struggling with her mental health at the time.
"I am scared now that I know he is preying on children.
"I hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else," she said.
The court heard Wilson had several historical convictions of a sexual nature.
Judge Turner sentenced him to 26 months’ imprisonment and he was automatically registered as a child-sex offender.
