A MAN who posed as a student has been jailed for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl found dead months later.

Police caught Kevin Palmer, who was 39 at the time, in a tent with Danielle Formosa, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

He first met the Sunderland teenager four months earlier and told her he was a 19-year-old law student.

Danielle, in care at the time of the offences and described as a ‘troubled young girl’, texted Palmer to arrange the meeting last June.

Robert Woodcock, prosecuting, said the pair met in Sunderland and that Palmer was carrying a rucksack containing a tent.

“They went to the park, he put up the tent and they listened to music off his phone.

“When they were in the tent, an officer checked up on them and they both gave false names."

He said that as the officer walked away, he heard Danielle call the man "Kev", different to the name he had provided.

Another officer arrived and ordered them out of the tent and asked for their names and ages.

As Danielle gave her details, Palmer packed up his tent and fled before being arrested at home.

He was originally accused of raping the schoolgirl and appeared at court for trial but admitted the lesser charges of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of Danielle and causing or inciting her to engage in sexual activity.

Danielle was found dead at East Farmhouse Children's Home in Consett, County Durham, in December in December aged 14. There were no suspicious circumstances.

She went to St Anthony’s Catholic Girl’s Academy in Sunderland, and was a Facebook friend of 14-year-old Sarah Clerkson, who was found hanged at a house party in Spennymoor, County Durham, two weeks earlier.

Nick Peacock, defending, said Palmer has had a difficult life and showed remorse about the offences and the death of Danielle, a claim Judge Penny Moreland rejected.

Jailing him for four and a half years, the judge told Palmer: “She has, since these offences, taken her own life. You can’t be held to account for that. I have no doubt that what you did caused distress and upset.”

Palmer was also ordered to sign the sex offences’ register for life, and he will be banned from having contact with children under 16 without social workers present.

Speaking afterwards, Acting Detective Chief Inspector Shelley Hudson said: “His crime has clearly had a devastating impact on the victim, who sadly is no longer with us.”