Student jailed for exploiting teenage girl

He persuaded the underage girl to send him explicit pictures

him sexually-explicit photos of herself.

The 61 Category C images were found on his laptop and mobile phone. He sent the girl indecent images of himself.

After a few months, Atkinson, of Gildercliffe, realised the girl was under-age and told her to block him on social media. But a few days later, he texted her to say he missed her and they began messaging again.

When the girl told Atkinson she had been messaging another lad, he called her an offensive name and told her “he didn’t want her anymore”. She said she was “heartbroken”, Atkinson said he “didn’t find her attractive anymore and told her to go back to the other lad”.

But they continued messaging and the girl told Atkinson she wanted to marry him and have children.

“She is clearly, by this stage, besotted by the defendant,” added Mr Cordey.

She told her parents she was going to stay at a friend’s house but caught a train to Scarborough in May 2017.

She stayed for two nights at his home where they had sex and Atkinson performed sexual acts on her.

It was the girl’s first sexual experience and no cotraception was used, added Mr Cordey.

The girl feared she might be pregnant and was examined by a medical professional.

Mr Cordey said Atkinson had groomed the victim, whose mother described her as a “naïve and quiet young girl”.

Defence barrister Andrea Parnham said Atkinson was “struggling with personal issues” at the time of the offences and found it hard to come to terms with the death of his father.

He had recently suffered a second bereavement – the death of his younger brother.

She said Atkinson, who left his job at a supermarket following his arrest, had since formed a new relationship and shown “clear remorse” for his actions.

Judge Simon Hickey told Atkinson: “It’s clear that (she) became besotted with you (and) was emotionally manipulated.”

He acknowledged that Atkinson had suffered “extreme tragedy”, but the exploitation of a vulnerable girl could only be met by a custodial sentence.

Atkinson was sentenced to three years in a young-offenders’ institution, placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life and a five-year sexual-harm prevention order was made.