THE HAGUE (AFP) - A Dutchman who got more than a dozen young girls to perform sex acts in front of their webcams was sentenced to six years in jail on Thursday.

The man, identified only as Frank R., abused girls as young as 12 or 13 who he contacted online, the northeastern Assen regional court said in a statement.

Frank R. was found guilty of "grooming", the term used to describe predators who befriend children to manipulate them for sexual ends.

The court said he goaded and in some cases threatened the girls into performing sex acts behind their computer screen, which he then filmed.

In half the cases the man also had real-life sexual encounters with the girls - which he also filmed - and in one case raped an "extremely young girl".

During the investigation, police confiscated 26,000 videos and 144,000 images on Frank R.'s computer.

The trial came six months after a 40-year-old Dutch man was charged with abusing hundreds of young children by getting them to perform sex acts in front of their webcams.

In that case, police retrieved images of around 400 minors off his computer, but prosecutors say there was no physical contact between the man and the children.