A "sexual predator" from Bradford whose relationship with a 14-year-old girl ended when he viciously assaulted her has been jailed for 32 months.

Jay Blackett, 26, was convicted by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday of five example offences of unlawful sexual intercourse with the Merseyside teenager.

Blackett, of Windsor Court, Swarland Grove, had pleaded guilty to causing the girl, who is now 15, actual bodily harm in a drink and cocaine-fuelled jealous rage on April 15.

The court heard that it was this attack, which resulted in "excessive injuries to her head and face", which brought the illegal relationship to light.

Judge Bryn Holloway said: "It is clear sexual intercourse took place regularly over a four-and-a-half month period.

"She clearly consented to that but you took advantage of her for your own sexual gratification.

"Girls of such tender years are entitled to the protection of the courts not only from themselves but from sexual predators like you."

The assault happened after the girl tried to leave the house she and Blackett were in when she received a mobile telephone call from her mother.

Robert Altham, prosecuting, said Blackett became angry, slapped her and dragged her through different rooms by the hair.

The assault ended with him headbutting her in the face with such force that her head went back and broke a double-glazed bathroom window pane, he said.

The teenager eventually escaped in bare feet to a relative's house, with her nose cut and face bruised.

The court heard that five months of the sentence Blackett will serve is from an earlier 15-month sentence he had been given for burglary.

Blackett had denied having sexual intercourse with the girl and said they had just been friends. His counsel, Neville Biddle, said he had expressed remorse about the assault from an early stage.