Adelaide man jailed for grooming girls

An Adelaide man who offered young girls alcohol, cigarettes and mobile phone credit in exchange for semi-naked pictures has been jailed for at least 18 months.

Phillip Charles Smith, 24, pleaded guilty in the District Court to multiple charges of making a communication for a prurient purpose and causing a child to expose a part of her body.

The court heard Smith chatted online with four girls aged 13 to 16 over several months in early 2012, offering cash in exchange for sex and asking them to send him nude photographs.

Smith, then aged 21, bought mobile phone credit for one girl so that she could continue to send him pictures, and offered to buy cigarettes and alcohol for another girl.

He also pleaded guilty to aggravated possession of child pornography, after police found a number of video files described by Judge Wayne Chivell as "seriously depraved and indecent".

He jailed Smith for three years, with a non-parole period of 18 months.

"In my view, any objective reading of the conversations you had with these girls can only lead to the conclusion that you were grooming them," the judge said.

"They were young, immature and vulnerable. In my opinion, your behaviour was sexually predatory."

Judge Chivell accepted that Smith was deeply remorseful but said his offences were too serious to warrant a suspended sentence.