AN Army sergeant smuggled a 13-year-old girl into his barracks for Saturday afternoon sex sessions, a court was told yesterday.

The teenager's father found a bundle of letters in her bedroom from the married gunner, which ended up in police hands, the court heard.

A handwriting expert confirmed the letters were written by Sergeant Michael Baker, 40.

The girl, who is now 15, told police that they had sex on about 20 occasions, said Jeremy Hill-Baker, prosecuting.

The court was told that her father challenged her about what was going on, and she lied to him about who had written the letters.

After a delay, her mother handed them in to police officers.

The girl told police that the man was Baker, an Army veteran of 22-years serving with 40 Regiment Royal Artillery at Allanbrooke Barracks, in Topcliffe, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

He was arrested in August and accepted that he took her to the barracks, but said he wrote the letters to scare her off.

Mr Hill-Baker told Teesside Crown Court: "They went on quite a few occasions to his barracks, and there they had sexual intercourse on approximately 20 occasions.

"He asked her when she was going to be 16, and she told him in about two years."

Baker, of Racecourse Mews, Thirsk, denies six charges of under-age sex with her when she was 13 and 14, between November 2001 and July last year.

The case continues.