Spice user avoids prison after sex with teenage girl

still having to take medication for psychosis and suffered mental health problems which restricted his working.

He was now in a relationship which had lasted more than a year.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC commented that Esteves’s health issues were self-inflicted as a result of his use of Spice and warned him to stay away from it in the future.

Esteves, now 20, admitted sexual activity with a child and was given 16 months in prison, suspended for two years with 30 rehabilitation activity days. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for five years.

Judge Marson told him: “It is a criminal offence as you know to have sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16, and in very many circumstances it is necessary to mark it with a custodial sentence.

“In your particular case, bearing in mind the circumstances in which it came to be committed, there is no suggestion of grooming, no suggestion you specifically targeted a vulnerable girl, for that is what she was.” Anthony Esteves was ordered to register as a sex offender for five years at Leeds Crown Court. Above: A bag of Spice

But because of his own immaturity and not having committed any further offences since, and because he was addressing his drug addiction, the sentence could be suspended, the judge said.

“Spice is a wicked substance, I deal with people who have committed very serious offences using it. It is dangerous stuff and will ruin your life,” the judge concluded.