A 24-YEAR-OLD man has been found guilty of knowingly helping a young teenage girl to run away from home.

Jonathan Pennington, of Bannockburn Way, Billingham, had denied the charge at Teesside Magistrates Court, saying the girl was just a friend.

He was charged under the Children’s Act after police found her on the porch roof of his home after she had clambered out of his bedroom window.

Magistrates heard Pennington had already received a written police warning not to contact her and when officers called at his home, he denied she was there.

Pennington told the court that he had known the teenager, who was in foster care in another town, for about a year after meeting her at his half-brother’s flat.

He said he had offered her moral support and was a responsible adult she could talk to.

Helen Sabiston, defending, asked him about the police notice which ordered him to stay away from the teenager after the authorities learned of their friendship.

He said: “I thought it was disgraceful. Just because of someone’s age shouldn’t stop me being friends.”

Pennington had signed the police notice, but bumped into the girl in Billingham town centre on Monday, March 4.

The girl told him her friends were going to a party and she talked to him about her problems and he took her to the house he shares with his mother and grandmother, who were both in at the time.

Pennington and the teenager were talking in his bedroom when police called.

The court heard Pennington answered the door and the teenager climbed out of the window on to the porch roof.

Helen Cox, prosecuting, asked him why he told the police the teenager wasn’t there.

He replied: “It was just to get rid of them...I don’t trust Cleveland Police and I’ll never trust Cleveland Police.”

Mrs Sabiston stressed that he was not preventing the girl from going home and had expected her to do so.

Pennington was found guilty and will be sentenced on Thursday, May 30. He was ordered not have any further contact with the girl.