A teenager who continued to meet an underage girl despite warnings has been locked up for 10 months.

Gareth Melville was charged with child abduction after being found with a 15-year-old who willingly went to his home.

Maidstone Crown Court heard some of her underwear was in his room in East Street, Sittingbourne. Officers spotted a bra and knickers, as well as a pair of pink fluffy socks there.

The girl’s mother had repeatedly reported her missing and she was often found with Melville.

She was seen in Sittingbourne High Street in September. When police officers arrived she made off.

Prosecutor Trevor Wright said she was found with Melville, 18, hiding under a Ford Transit van in a car park.

After he was arrested, the girl said to Melville: “I told you this was going to happen.”

“She feels she has been groomed. She often returns home drunk..." - prosecutor Trevor Wright on the victim's mother's feelings

She told officers: “I told him to go because he was going to get arrested for being with me. He didn’t listen so how is it my fault?”

Mr Wright said the girl had told her mother she was “sexually active”.

CCTV footage showed she regularly met Melville. On one occasion she entered the room at 1.20am wearing only a jumper.

“Her mother says she has been really worried about her daughter,” said Mr Wright.

“She feels she has been groomed. She often returns home drunk. He buys her jewellery.”

Mr Wright said the girl refused to give any evidence of any activity at all.

Melville, who admitted child abduction, had previous convictions for threatening words, having a bladed article and burglary.

Mr Wright said the latest case “had all the appearance of abduction by consent”.

Judge Julian Smith said he would treat it as “an unusual intimate relationship where there is abduction which is not sexual”.

There was a need for deterrent, he said. The girl was still under the care and responsibility of her mother.

“She is a child and he is an adult,” he continued.

“There is an intimacy and closeness which flows from the relationship between them.

"He took her under his control. That is abduction. He was aware of her age.

"If I found there was a sexual relationship, the sentence would be substantially greater, but I can’t disregard the commonsense interpretation.

“There is a need for deterrence in cases of this kind. In the circumstances, I am not in a position to suspend the inevitable custodial sentence.

"It may be an invitation to breach that sentence and commit further sentences.”

Melville spent almost three months in custody on remand and is likely to be released in the near future.