SOUTHEND MAN JAILED FOR SEX WITH 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL
A man is behind bars today after he admitted having sex with a 14-year-old girl during a three-month relationship.Richard Tong, 30, a van driver, of Southchurch Road, Southend, claimed he had not realised the girl was under 16, Southend magistrates court were told.
Prosecuting, Colin McGinnis said Tong knew the girl's father through his work.
They started meeting in August last year, and he gave her a key to his flat so she could let herself in.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, started going out three times a week, telling her parents she was visiting a schoolfriend.
However, she had been returning home with love bites on her neck and body.
On November 13 she was spotted by a neighbour in the Warrior Square car park.
The woman told her parents and they went down to the car park and found her, and saw Tong driving off.
The girl told her parents of the affair.
When they asked her if Tong had been taking precautions she asked what they meant.
When they explained she said he had not.
Tong admitted three counts of underage sex between September 1 and November 13 last year.
Defending, John Hayter, said the girl and Tong had a loving, sincere relationship and she wrote him several letters.
Jailing Tong for three months, stipendiary magistrate Kevin Gray said: "You were 30 and she was 14 and you took advantage of the situation."
