A MAN who sparked a nationwide hunt after he abducted a 14-year-old girl he had seduced has been jailed for three and a half years.

David Milner turned his attentions to the schoolgirl after failing to strike up an intimate relationship with her mother.

The twice married grandfather and the girl eventually fled, ending up in Scotland, where they were found four days later sleeping in a car by a vigilant police officer.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how Milner, 46, had a sexual relationship with the victim over a six-month period.

Milner, of Victoria Street, Gillingham, admitted one charge of child abduction, five of sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 and five of indecency with a child.

Danny Robinson, defending, said Milner should have exercised the restraint his aged demanded. “That is at the centre of his criminality,” he said. “He for a man of 46 should have known better. He appreciates that now.”

Mr Justice Owen told Milner he had been in a position of trust which he chose to abuse, taking advantage of a young and impressionable girl to satisfy his sexual desires.

The judge pointed out that the maximum sentence for indecency with a child was 10 years and for abduction seven years. The unlawful sex offences carried a maximum of two years.

Milner was jailed for three and a half years for abduction, three years for indecency with a child and three years for having sex with a girl under 16, all to run concurrently.

Mr Justice Owen said Milner would remain on the sex offenders’ register for life and be disqualified from working with children.