A Dunedin man will be sentenced today for grooming a 14-year-old, less than three months after being found not guilty of raping a young girl

The Otago Daily Times reports 63-year-old Evan Hedley Smith was caught by an undercover police officer.

The member of the Online Child Exploitation team posed on-line as a teenage girl and began conversations with Smith.

Smith declared his love for the girl, suggested they meet in person - and joked that maybe she could be naked when they did.

Three months before starting the online relationship, Smith had been cleared by a jury of charges of abusing a young girl over a period of 18 months.