A criminal defence solicitor who sexually abused two 13-year-old girls and paid them hundreds of pounds in cash for explicit photographs has been jailed for more than nine years.

Suleman Baig, who was branded 'calculated' and 'predatory' by prosecutors, first began asking the girls, who he met through a childhood friend, to send him naked photos of themselves over social media app Snapchat.

If they refused, he offered cash incentives of up to £100 for a single photograph, Leeds Crown Court heard.

He would hide the money in the home of one of the girls, often under toilet roll in the bathroom.

The abuse escalated to 40-year-old Baig asking the girls to perform sexual acts. During 20 episodes of abuse he told one of the girls to 'think about vegetables' as a distraction from his sordid activities, the court heard.

Police were contacted following reports of a concern for welfare of one of the children and when they interviewed her at her school, she said she had been sending images to a man who was abusing her.

During the meeting with police, she received multiple messages from Baig on social media. While officers were investigating the first reports, they were alerted to a second victim.

When Baig, of Grimsby, was arrested in 2021, police discovered more than 700 indecent images of children on his devices including 'pseudo images' of one of his victims which he had created using editing software based on the original photographs he had sent her.

Following his arrest, the solicitor contacted the victims and witnesses in the case in attempts to make them withdraw their statements supporting his prosecution.

On the second day of a scheduled trial in December, Baig pleaded guilty to sexual assault, making indecent photographs of children, intending to pervert the course of justice, sexual activity with a child and paying for the sexual services of a child.

At Leeds Crown Court today he was jailed for nine years and nine months.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for life.

The court heard that, after pleading guilty to the offences, Baig was granted bail on the condition he surrender his passport to the police.

However he supplied police with a passport which had expired more than 20 years previously. His bail was revoked and he was remanded into custody.

Graham Guest, of the CPS, said: 'Suleman Baig was a practising solicitor who knew exactly how serious his crimes were, yet still continued to systematically groom and abuse two young girls.

'Baig exploited a position of trust, offering money to manipulate the girls into sending him explicit images for his own gratification. His actions were calculated, predatory, and deeply disturbing.

'When his offences ultimately caught up with him, he made flagrant attempts to pressure his young victims to withdraw their evidence.

'I have been extremely impressed by the courage of both victims in coming forward and supporting this prosecution even in the face of his attempts to silence them.

'His conviction and sentence reflect the gravity of his crimes and sends a clear message that no one is above the law, regardless of their profession.'

Philip Shrimpton, of Humberside Police, added: 'Baig was a practising criminal solicitor and yet still committed such abhorrent crimes against these girls.

'It has been a lengthy, and complex investigation, but it is thanks to their courage that he is being held accountable for his despicable sexual deviancy.

'Baig is a manipulative sexual predator who groomed two girls for his own sexual gratification and attempted to pressure them to deny this to the police.'