A 26-YEAR-OLD Kidderminster man who repeatedly met a girl of 14 despite warnings from her parents and police has been jailed for 12 months.

Sean Sewell, who was convicted by magistrates of sexual grooming, was ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

He began a relationship with the girl who visited his bedsit on several occasions, said Abigail Nixon, prosecuting at Worcester Crown Court.

Her parents were upset and sent him a letter but Sewell, of Charles Street, Kidderminster, ignored it and continued to see the teenager.

On one occasion when she went missing from home, she was found at his flat. He came to the door shirtless, with his trouser belt undone.

When arrested, he maintained there was no intimacy, apart from kissing and cuddling.

Sewell, who had a previous conviction for indecent assault, was a lonely man who had undertaken a relationship without sex, said Jabeen Akhtar, defending.

The girl had pursued him through text messages and had once climbed out of a window to escape from her home after her parents locked her in.

Judge John Cavell said the seriousness of the case was the difference in their ages. Girls of 14 needed protection.

The judge accepted it was not a case of a girl being groomed for seduction through the internet but it was a matter of public policy that the sentence should be custody.

He ordered that Sewell should be on licence for two years after his release from jail.