A 27-year-old Gaithersburg man, who prosecutors say met a 13-year-old girl through the Internet and had sex with her in 2007, avoided a trial that was to have begun Thursday by pleading guilty to second-degree rape.

Bradford Lee Atkins Jr., who had been charged at least twice previously with sex offenses and on another occasion with gun violations, is to be sentenced Feb. 4 by Baltimore County Circuit Judge Mickey J. Norman. The judge had begun picking a jury Wednesday and was to have resumed the process Thursday when Atkins chose to accept a plea deal on a single count rather than be tried on all six counts with which he was charged.

"He had a night to consider it," prosecutor Brian Botts said. "He decided to plead guilty to what he was originally offered."

Botts said he would recommend that Atkins be given a 10-year sentence with all but three years suspended, and that he be placed on probation for between three years and five years after his release. That way, the prosecutor said, Atkins will have the remaining seven years of his sentence "hanging over his head" if he violates probation. In addition, Atkins must be registered for life as a sex offender, and will have to check in with state registry officials every six months.

Paul Merryman, a Baltimore County police detective who was the first to question Atkins after his arrest June 11, said Atkins told him the girl had claimed to be 19 years old, that they had engaged in sex twice and that it was consensual.

Atkins, who lives in the 200 block of Park Ave. in Gaithersburg, was charged with second-degree rape, false imprisonment, second-degree assault, a third-degree sex offense, harassment via electronic mail and retaliation against a witness.

Botts said Atkins had contacted the Baltimore County girl some months after their initial encounters and tried to revive the liaison. "It surprised her," Botts said. The renewed contact prompted the girl to report the incidents, he said.

Gayle L. Robinson, an assistant public defender who represented Atkins, said her client "thought he was having sex with a person of the age of consent, and then later she accuses him of raping her."

The girl was in court Thursday and heard Atkins' plea before he was returned to jail to await his sentencing.

In September 2004, Atkins was found guilty of a handgun offense in Prince George's County. In 2006 and 2007, in Charles County, a total of six charges - including three for second-degree rape - were either not prosecuted or placed on stet dockets, the latter meaning that if he stayed out of trouble for a year the charges would be dropped.

In a trial that ended in February 2006 in Prince George's County, Atkins was found not guilty of six charges, including rape, assault and harassment in connection with incidents that occurred in March 2005. Three other charges were not prosecuted, and one resulted in a verdict of acquittal.