A MAN who spent two nights in a hotel with an underage girl has admitted contacting the victim more than 100 times from his prison cell.

The pair booked into The George in Piercebridge, on December 29, 2019, days after Connor Dulson – who was 19 at the time – was warned to keep away from the girl following complaints to police by her mother.

The now 20-year-old was sentenced to ten months imprisonment and handed a restraining order which prohibited him from contacting the girl for three years.

On release he was immediately arrested after it emerged, he had contacted the then 15-year-old 109 times from his prison cell, after claiming the number belonged to his sister.

Dulson, of Plantation Terrace, Fir Tree, near Crook, pleaded guilty to the breach and was handed an eight month prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to undergo 30 days of rehabilitation.

Judge Ray Singh sitting at Durham Crown Court via video link said: "In a matter of days if not hours of the restraining order being imposed you decided to contact the young child. On 109 separate occasions you used a legal prison phone to make contact and told the prison authorities the number belonged to your sister.

"The original offence when the order was made was serious, you took a child away from the care of her mother and took her to a hotel. You had been given a warning previously which you disregarded and continued to commit the particularly offence.

"The credit you do deserve however, is the fact you admitted these matters in a magistrates' court and also the fact you have been honest to myself. However these are serious offences and you have been in trouble with the police before for a number of different matters."

Before sentencing Judge Singh said Dulson's actions were 'blatantly deliberate' and said any breach would likely result in a lengthy prison sentence.