A FATHER-OF-THREE who had sex with a schoolgirl at a party escaped a jail sentence yesterday, because she was almost the legal age of 16.

The girl was 15-and-a-half when Robert Lewis, 30, had sex with her on the floor of a bedroom where her boyfriend was asleep, Michael Bosomworth, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court.

Divorced Lewis told a jury, who cleared him of rape, that he did not know her name but he talked to her and within five minutes they began kissing and she got out of bed. He said that she undressed and she laid on the floor.

Tim Roberts, defending, said that Lewis, who has three children under three years to his fiancee, was tempted by the air of promiscuity at the New Year's Eve party in Pallister Park, Middlesbrough.

Lewis and his fiancee were shocked when he faced trial in September for rape but he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to a charge of unlawful sex.

Judge David Bryant told Lewis: "It must have been plain to you that she was much younger than you and considerably affected by alcohol.

"It seems to me that I can just about keep you out of prison. You admitted this offence and this in not a girl who was a great deal below 16."

Lewis, of Wicklow Street, Middlesbrough, was ordered to do 150 hours community punishment and given a two- year community rehabilitation order after he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for five years.