A MAN has been jailed for three years after he admitted charges of abduction and sexual activity with a 14 year old girl.

Andrew Mark Dolman, 30, was sentenced to three years and four months for the sexual activity charge, and two years and six months for the abduction charge.

The sentences are to be served concurrently.

He pleaded guilty to abducting the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and engaging in sexual activity with her.

Rufus Taylor, representing Dolman, said the schoolgirl had been the one to pursue the relationship and there had been consent but Judge Roger Jarvis said this offered ‘scant mitigation’ because of her age.

He said: “You say she had consented but there is scant mitigation as far as that is concerned.

“Whether sexually experienced or not, girls of this age are vulnerable to exploitation and require protection, sometimes from themselves.

“One day, the victim will realise that when she was a child she was subject to a sexual relationship with a man much older than herself, and that will have a profound effect on her.”

Dorchester Crown Court was told that Dolman, of Trinity Street, Dorchester, had been served with a child abduction warning notice a few days before the offence took place in August this year.

Prosecuting, Carolyn Branford-Wood said the defendant had taken ‘little regard’ of the notice, served after concerns were raised by the girl’s parents, which confirmed her name and age and requested that there be no further contact.

She said: “Just a week later, the victim’s mother reports her daughter is missing.

The following morning, police go to the defendant’s home address and she is there.”

The court heard that in interview, the girl initially denied there had been any sexual contact, describing their relationship as ‘just friends’, but later admitted the pair had sexual activity after she had consumed cannabis and alcohol.

Ms Branford-Wood added that Dolman told police the pair had met in a Weymouth shop.

She said: “He said she told him she was 16 and he believed her.

“He later discovered she was 14 and remembered being served with the notice and he accepted he had been with her a couple of times since the notice.”

Mr Taylor said the defendant had had a ‘wretched start to life’, spending time in care, and later becoming addicted to drugs.

He added: “He will now pay the price by serving a relatively lengthy custodial sentence.”

Previous Assaults Against Children

DOLMAN had previous convictions for similar offences, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

He was convicted in 2000 of a sexual assault on a girl and was convicted in 2007 of two counts of sexual activity with a child under 16.

Following the sentence, Julia Woodward, senior crown prosecutor for CPS Wessex, said: “Andrew Dolman is a convicted sex offender who took advantage of a girl for his own sexual gratification.”

She added: “Dolman already has two previous convictions for sexual offences.

“He was convicted in 2000 of a sexual assault on a girl and was convicted in 2007 of two counts of sexual activity with a child under 16.

“Therefore, he was well aware that he was committing a serious criminal offence by engaging in sexual activity with a young girl.

“He pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, thereby sparing the young victim from having to give evidence at a trial.

“We hope that after today’s sentencing the victim and her family can put this behind them and continue to move on with their lives.”