Man jailed for having sex with 12-year-old (From The Northern Echo)

Man jailed for having sex with 12-year-old

2:23pm Friday 24th October 2008 in

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A MAN has been jailed for having sex with a 12-year-old girl who lied about her age before he plied her with vodka.

Police initially arrested three men after the schoolgirl and her 14-year-old friend said they had sex with them at a flat in a multi-storey block in Middlesbrough.

Two of them were released without charge because the Crown Prosecution Service could not disprove the claim that they genuinely believed the older girl was over 16.

The girls gave their ages as 16 and 17 when they met two of the men in Middlesbrough after they had been to an under-age disco, said prosecutor Sue Jacobs.

The younger girl gave her mobile phone number to Thomas Elliott,30, who later rang her and invited them to the flat in Fulbeck House, Middlesbrough, to watch football.

When the girls arrived they were met by three men and the younger girl shared a mug of vodka and coke with Elliott, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Mrs Jacobs added: "He approached the 14-year-old and he began to feel her breasts saying 'Your boobs are massive for your age'.

"They sat together drinking and in her words having a laugh. After an hour he went to the other girl and he asked if she fancied him and she said No. He kissed her lips and she responded, and then he said 'Come into the bedroom, I want to tell you something'."

They went into the bedroom where he undressed her and they had sex, and she performed a sex act on him before they returned to the living room.

Mrs Jacobs said: "On at least two occasions he said to her 'Are you 16?' and she kept telling him that she was.

"When they got back into the living room she could not find her friend. She was told she was in one of the bedrooms and she found her friend having sex. They had an argument because the other girl wanted to stay the night. The complainant got a taxi home."

Mrs Jacobs said that concern was growing for the 14-year-old, and her father went to the flat where he found her partially-dressed with a man. There was a disturbance and the police were called. The next day the girls went to the police station and allegations were made against all three men.

Elliott told police that he believed she was 16, and he said he would not have behaved as he did if he had known the truth.

The girl has since received counselling and she told police that she cut off her hair because she felt that she needed a new identity.

Robin Turton, defending, said that by pleading guilty Elliott had saved the girl the embarrassment of having to give evidence.

He added: "This is an occasion which presented itself and he was told that she was 16 and he believed that she was 16.

"He has no convictions at all, he has never been to prison before and he has spent three weeks in custody on remand. When I saw him downstairs he presented as a crushed and frightened individual. He has found the whole experience a salutary one."

Elliott, of Wandhill Avenue, Boosbeck, East Cleveland, was jailed for 21 months, ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years and banned from working with children after he pleaded guilty to two charges of raping a child under 13 on June 21.

Judge Tony Briggs said that members of the public should understand that the rape of a child under 13 if put in straightforward terms would ordinarily call for a sentence of many years, but there was a range of circumstances.The judge told Elliott: "It is rightly accepted that custody is inevitable and it should also be understood that although the word rape is used actual proof of consent is not a part of it.

"People in their late 20s who have intercourse with girls who may or may not be under 16 run a considerable risk.

"It is highly unlikely that you would have thought that this child was under 13, but as to whether she was under 16 or not there is room for argument about that.

"The aggravating features in this case are disparity between her and you, and I have heard that you would not have done it if you knew that she was under 16. Weighing up the various factors, prison is inevitable."