November 2010 Gloucestershire man, 36, begged girl, 14 for a kiss, court told A MARRIED 36-year-old man begged a 14-year-old girl to kiss him, a court heard. Neil Cockle, of Damery Lane, Woodford, near Berkeley, has been placed on the Sexual Offenders Register following a trial at Gloucester Crown Court. Judge William Hart told him he clearly needed guidance to show him it was “wrong for a man of his age” to try to act upon any feelings he might have for underage girls. Cockle had pleaded guilty to inciting a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity, namely kissing, between August 29 and September 1 last year. The girl was among guests staying in Cockle’s house over the August bank holiday weekend when the incident happened. Prior to that weekend, Cockle had been texting her and had clearly been seeking “some sort of inappropriate relationship with her,” said prosecutor Virginia Cornwall. “We say there was a clear sexual intent on his part,” she added. She said that when everyone in Cockle’s house had gone to bed on the night of the incident, the girl went to fetch herself a glass of water. She said: “He approached her and asked for a kiss and grabbed her arm. “He was persistent and wouldn’t let go. “He kept holding her. He kept saying ‘Please, I want to see how it feels’. “He was looking down at her and she was feeling really belittled. He kept saying ‘please, please…’ She said she didn’t want to. He did not pursue it but she was clearly highly distressed as a result of what happened.” The girl later told her mother what had happened and police were called. When Cockle was arrested he denied having any sexual feelings for the girl and said she had misunderstood the kissing incident. He claimed he simply wanted to kiss her goodnight. Brendon Moorhouse, defending, said Cockle, who is married with children, had been a law-abiding and hard working man all his life. At the time of the offences, however, he had a lot of domestic stress in his life, having in the past had a gambling problem which left him contemplating suicide. Judge Hart ordered Cockle to sign the sex offenders register for the next five years and he also made a sexual offences prevention order banning him from contacting the girl for five years.