January 2011 CUMBRIAN MAN WHO GROOMED AND SLEPT WITH GIRL, 14, JAILED A former flight sergeant in a Cumbrian branch of the Air Training Corps who sexually groomed and then slept with a 14-year-old girl has been jailed for three years. Thirty-year-old Adrian Famelton, from Carlisle, bombarded his victim with sexually explicit text messages before spending the night with her in a hotel in Blackpool, where he plied her with alcohol. When he drove her back to Cumbria, he learned that she had been reported missing and panicked, dropping her off in a remote country lane, five miles from her home. Famelton, of Belfry Close Etterby, had earlier pleaded guilty to sexual activity with the child after sexually grooming her. Carlisle Crown Court heard that Famelton pursued the relationship despite being warned not to do so by police. Kim Whittlestone, prosecuting, told how Famelton once told his victim an undercover policeman was outside his house and made her leave by the back door. Over two months last year, he sent the girl 2,500 sexually explicit text messages, and persuaded her to stay away from her family. “Effectively, you were seducing her,” Judge Paul Batty QC told the defendant. On a Saturday early last year, Famelton picked the girl up in his car and drove to Blackpool, having sex with the teenager in his car before checking into a hotel and spending the night there. At the time, not knowing where the teenager was, her worried family reported her missing, the court heard. Famelton dropped her off so far from home in order to distance himself from her. It was after she was dropped off in the remote country lane that the girl, fed up and angry at the way the defendant treated her, contacted police. Elizabeth Muir, for Famelton, said that her client had been a man of exemplary character, whose long hoped for career in the RAF had been ended by a medical condition. The defendant had also once attended St James Palace in London where he was presented with a Duke of Edinburgh gold award. Miss Muir went on to say that her client wished to apologise for the negative impact of his actions on the girl and to apologise to her family, who were left extremely concerned about her whereabouts. “He can only put his behaviour down to utter stupidity,” she said. When dropping the girl off in the countryside, Famelton had panicked, she said. Passing sentence, Judge Batty said that the defendant was well aware of his victim’s age and his offence had virtually every aggravating feature imaginable. He had also taken every step he could to avoid detection, including persuading his victim to lie. As well as jailing Famelton, he imposed a sexual offences prevention order that bars him from having unsupervised access to children, including any contact by text or email. He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.