A SCHOOL bus driver was jailed for 40 months for the abuse of a teenage girl.

Martin Nicholson, who was 24 at the time, was told by the girl that she was aged only 14, but still went on to meet her at planned rendezvous, culminating in her spending a night with him at his caravan.

Durham Crown Court heard that it was the girl’s increasingly distanced behaviour that led to the abuse being brought to light.

Paul Abrahams, prosecuting, said her concerned mother was shocked to find photos of her daughter in bed with a man when she checked her phone.

She confronted her daughter who revealed she had been seeing a man and admitted spending the night at his caravan, but she told her mother she did not have sex with him.

The police were informed and the girl told officers she met him several months earlier.

She later sent him a social media friend request, which he accepted, and they began regularly messaging each other.

Mr Abrahams said the girl revealed her age, to which the defendant replied: “S***!”

But it did not deter him from meeting her and they kissed and there was sexual touching by Nicholson, who asked if she would stay overnight at his caravan.

The girl lied to her mother over where she was going and spent the night at the caravan, where there was further sexual touching as both lay naked in bed.

Mr Abrahams told the court: “It’s clear the girl thought they were in a serious relationship as he told her he would love it if he did not have to lie about it.”

But he added that Nicholson failed to mention he was in a long-term relationship with a woman at the time.

When arrested, he told police he thought she was 16, but later discovered she was 14, and accepted it was, “totally wrong”.

Nicholson, now 26, of The Granary, in Burnhope, admitted causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and sexual assault on a child.

Vince Ward, mitigating, said Nicholson did not lie about his age or pressurise the girl.

“His culpability was that he failed to withdraw from it when he found out her true age.”

Jailing him, Judge Deborah Sherwin told Nicholson: “It’s quite clear there was a degree of affection between you at the time, but the problem is that she was ten years younger than you, and an emotionally vulnerable 14-year-old girl.”

Nicholson was made subject of registration as a sex offender for life and restrictions under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, “until further order.”