A 39-year-old man who was caught in a compromising situation with a schoolgirl in a country lane has been jailed.

Both Paul Coleman and the 13-year-old girl had their trousers down when police officers spotted them in a car late at night, a court heard.

When Coleman, a driver for the patients trust service, and a father of three, was later found to be wearing a condom, he claimed it was in preparation for having sex with his wife when he got home. But his story was "rejected without hesitation" by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court. Coleman was jailed for eight months after admitting sexual activity with a girl.

The court was told that officers were on patrol in Wouldham, on June 19, last year, when they saw a Rover parked in the entrance of a dirt track.

Dominic Webber, prosecuting, said Coleman, was in the driver’s seat and the girl was in the front passenger seat. The officers could see that neither Coleman nor the girl had their trousers on.

He was handcuffed and arrested. When asked if he had done anything else in the car, he said: "We touched, but we haven’t had intercourse."

The girl later said they had been to the same spot before. "They went there on the latest occasion to listen to music".

It was when Coleman’s clothes were seized that it was discovered he was wearing a condom, said the prosecutor.

Coleman, of Harold Road, Sittingbourne, has now lost his job with the Kent Ambulance Trust. He will have to sign the sex offenders’ register within three days of his release.