A FORMER teacher who had sex with a schoolgirl just a month after being released from a jail sentence imposed over his relationship with another pupil has been locked up for an indefinite period.

Peter Finney was given the public protection sentence after a judge decided there was a risk of him preying on other girls.

A judge said of 25-year-old Finney’s latest victim: "You took advantage of the fact she had a crush on you. The result is dreadful."

It had led to the talented but "vulnerable and emotionally immature" girl suffering a lot of problems, including psychological damage.

Finney admitted sexual grooming, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and seven charges of sexual activity with a child.

Judge Andrew Patience, QC, imposed the public protection sentence for one charge covering Finney first having full sex with the girl and jailed him for three years concurrent for the remaining offences.

Taking into account 104 days Finney had spent on remand, the judge ordered that he should not be considered for release until he had one year and 78 days.

Judge Patience said he stressed the words "considered for release on parole" in case the public thought he was specifying the date of release.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Finney was a music teacher at a Medway school when he struck up an inappropriate relationship with a girl, aged 13.

Peter Forbes, prosecuting, said it was, in effect, a grooming offence. They met after school and there was cuddling and "sexual kissing". Finney would telephone the girl and send her emails containing "sexual language".

Describing Finney’s behaviour as a gross breach of trust, Judge Patience on September 9 last year jailed him for four months.

He was released after two months and was still on licence when in early December he contacted a girl, aged 15.

Mr Forbes said Finney, of Park View Road, Welling, tried telephoning her and then sent her a text. She fancied him before he lost his teaching post and they began to talk on the telephone and exchange text messages.

Referring to Finney as Mike, so as not to arouse suspicion, messages of a "lurid and explicit sexual nature" were sent almost every day.

They first went to a restaurant car park where Finney got her to perform a sex act on him. They then agreed to have sexual intercourse.

Mr Forbes said on December 28, they met at Bluewater shopping centre near Dartford and then booked into a hotel in Canterbury. The girl paid the £90 cost from her savings.

They had sex without Finney using protection. She later took the morning after pill. They had intercourse on three other occasions in his car.

Mr Forbes said Finney spoke to a woman friend who knew about his previous offence and told her of his interest in another pupil. The friend tried to persuade him to stop seeing the girl and seek help. He then saw a sex therapist.

Finney begged the friend not to tell anybody, but she went to the police and the girl was identified.

Judge Patience told Finney: "I would have hoped you would have learnt your lesson and that you were determined to mend your ways, but that was not to be. You are a person with very considerable sexual problems."