A man has escaped a jail sentence for having sex with an underage girl.
A court heard yesterday how the 13-year-old and her friend had run away from a care home when they met Grant Halsey in Castle Park, Colchester.
He asked them back to his home in the town's Gladwin Road, where he had sex with the 13-year-old, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
Halsey, 25, admitted a charge of sexual activity with the girl on September 22 last year, when he appeared in court and was given a ten-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months.
He was also given an 18-month supervision order and put on the sex offenders' register for ten years.
Judge Christopher Ball QC told Halsey he was not being jailed straight away as he had been on remand in prison for the equivalent of a 16-month sentence.
Simon Spence, mitigating, said reports showed Halsey had a personality disorder. It was consensual sex and it was also clear the girl was more mature than her age of 13, Mr Spence said.
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