A MAN who groped a teenage girl in a street was yesterday jailed for 18 months.

Darren Peacock, 34, who had been drinking, followed the 15-year-old girl into the street near his home and placed one hand on her stomach and the other down her trousers, touching her bottom.

Durham Crown Court heard that she shouted and Peacock walked off, but the girl told her mother what had happened and police were informed.

Penny Moreland, prosecuting, said Peacock was arrested and denied the allegations, saying the incident never took place.

But then at a court appearance earlier this month, he admitted a charge of sexual assault by touching.

The court heard that after the incident in January, Peacock was also involved in a domestic incident with his now-estranged partner in which he threw a can of lager at her and pushed her against a wall, before she managed to escape from their home.

He admitted common assault in that incident in July.

Ann Haugstad, in mitigation, said that despite previous incidents of violence on his record, he had no history of sex offences.

Miss Haugstad said that Peacock, of Tees Street, Horden, east Durham, was deeply ashamed of his actions with the girl, but said it was not a situation that he had gone looking for.

She said: "It was something which presented itself, and he showed very poor judgement."

Jailing him, Judge John Walford said: "To do anything other than impose a custodial sentence would, in my judgement, be an affront to your victims, and send out a wrong message, not only to you, but to others who might be inclined to abuse adolescent girls or assault their partners."

Peacock must sign on the sex offenders' register and be subject to a sexual offences prevention order, both for ten years.