A PERVERT who drove a teenage girl to a reservoir before sexually assaulting her won a cut in his jail term.

Michael Robert Sharpe, of Elwick Road, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court in April to indecent assault.

The prosecution dropped charges of attempted rape and abduction, and Sharpe, 40, was jailed for four years.

His legal team argued that he was not given enough credit for his guilty plea, and that he had wrongly been jailed on the basis of the original charge.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal agreed his sentence was manifestly excessive, reducing it to two-and-a-half years.

They heard how his 15-year-old victim was on the run from a children's home in Stockton at the time.

In June last year, he drove her to Hurworth Burn reservoir, in Castle Eden Walkway Country Park, in County Durham, and, after walking her away from the car, put his hand on her chest.

He continued despite her protests - she told him she was 15 - and only stopped after he had put his hand down her trousers and said "you know you want it".

When Sharpe, who had a previous conviction for a sex offence, was arrested, he denied doing anything to the girl.

The prosecution agreed to drop the attempted rape and abduction charges after it was discovered the highly vulnerable girl had previously made unproven allegations that she had been sexually assaulted.