A lesbian paedophile who posed as a teenage boy to begin a relationship with a 12-year-old girl she had met on school playing fields has been convicted of indecently assaulting the child.

Kelly Trueman, 23, reinvented herself as 16-year-old Jake and concocted a string of lies to befriend a group of youngsters in Ripley, Derbyshire.

Derby Crown Court heard the young victim believed she had embarked on her first relationship when she met the supposed teenage boy last summer.

Jurors were told the pair regularly kissed and that Trueman later touched the girl's breasts and put her hands down the child's trousers. Mark Hurd, prosecuting, said Trueman, posing as Jake, persuaded the victim's parents to allow her to sleep at their house, claiming her mother was dead and she had been made homeless by her father.

The court heard the girl suffered a further assault in her family home, when Trueman pulled down her trousers to engage in a sex act. Mr Hurd said that the victim had been happy to kiss her "boyfriend", but had repeatedly said she was too young to be intimately touched. Trueman was convicted of eight counts of indecent assault and granted conditional bail to return to court to be sentenced next month.

The court was told the pair had met close to a primary school, when Trueman entered the victim's circle of friends last August. In interviews with police, the 12-year-old said she kissed Trueman while on the playing fields and told officers the woman had made repeated attempts to touch her in a sexual manner.

Jurors heard Trueman gave her young victim a string of love bites across her neck and stomach and begged to be allowed to perform oral sex on the child. The victim's mother told the court that she had spotted one of the love bites and warned Trueman, but admitted that she found "him" to be a "respectable, shy lad".

Trueman, formerly of Mill Lane in Codnor, Derbyshire, had slept at her victim's home for five nights before a neighbour raised concerns about her identity. She told the victim's mother that her daughter's "boyfriend" was a woman and they confirmed their fears in a phone call to Trueman's father.

In interview, the victim said: "I will grow up thinking I have been out with a girl, my first proper relationship was with a girl. I wouldn't have gone out with him if I thought he was a girl."

Trueman was told she will be required to sign the Sex Offenders' Register and ordered to appear at Stoke Crown Court to be sentenced on March 8.