A 24-year-old man who went to Blackpool with a 14-year-old girl has been made subject of a five-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order and ordered to do 120 hours unpaid work for the community after pleading guilty to child abduction.

Bradford Crown Court yesterday heard that Luke Toft, of Sandholme Drive, Thorpe Edge, Bradford, shared a hotel room with the girl, but the pair watched TV, went to a fast-food restaurant and went to see the illuminations, and no sexual activity took place. They returned to Bradford the next day.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said that going with the girl to Blackpool was entirely wrong. She perhaps had some sort of crush on an older man and a girl of her age had to be protected.

He told Toft if there had been sexual contact with the girl he would have gone straight to prison.

And Judge Thomas warned: “Nobody should be misled into thinking that adult men have some sort of carte blanche to form relationships of an intimate nature with young girls and think the courts are going to ignore that situation. They won’t, they don’t.

“Sexual activity with under age girls, even if provoked by the girl, even with her consent, will more often than not take them straight into custody.”