A MAN who is attracted to teenage girls has been jailed for breaching a court order for the fourth time by spending a night in a Rugby park with a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
Ashley Dowd had originally denied breaching the Sexual Offences Prevention Order, imposed in 2009 when he was sentenced for having sex with an under-age girl.
But Dowd, 25, of Yelvertoft Road, Lilbourne, near Rugby, changed his plea to guilty on the day of his trial at Warwick Crown Court.
And following an adjournment for attempts to be made to find a place for him at a suitable probation hostel, which were unsuccessful, he was jailed for 15 months.
The court had heard that in October 2009 Dowd had been given a 12-month suspended sentence at Northampton Crown Court for sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl.
He was also made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) for seven years, banning him from having unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 16, because of concerns for his expressed preference for girls much younger than himself.
Prosecutor Raj Punia said that in June last year, Dowd and two other men met a 14-year-old Rugby schoolgirl and a 21-year-old woman outside a Rugby youth club.
With the girl still in her school uniform, they went to Caldecott Park, where Dowd left them and then returned with a tent which he set up.
He and the schoolgirl spent the next few hours together before she went home in the early hours of the morning.
When he was arrested Dowd claimed he believed she was over the age of 16.
But he agreed he had not taken any steps to establish her age – and he entered his plea on the basis that he thought she was 16, but should have checked.
Miss Punia said it was the fourth time Dowd had breached the order since 2009, when he was also ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.
No action was taken in April 2011 when he breached it by being at the same address as a young relative, but the following month he was jailed for nine months for a second breach.
That had arisen when he and a friend were caught on CCTV at Danetre School in Daventry, where they were seen inside during school hours while there were a number of pupils around.
It was said they had been drinking, and had gone there to see his friend’s 15-year-old girlfriend.
There was then a further breach in July 2013, for which Dowd was jailed for 28 months – but Miss Punia said there were no details of that matter.
Sarah Holland, defending at the resumed hearing, said: “This was just carelessness on his part. He knows he should have asked the girl how old she was, and he’s paid the price for his mistake, having been in custody since September.”
At the previous hearing it was pointed out that the girl regarded Dowd as a friend, and that he never indicated he fancied her in any way or did anything sexual towards her.
Judge Richard Griffith-Jones observed that, because of the time Dowd had been in custody, ‘any sentence of 16 months or less means he will be immediately released.’
And he told Dowd: “You have really already been punished for what you’ve done.
“In order to avoid further punishments, you’re going to have to grow up and be more careful.
“In the future people may say he says it’s a mistake, but that he has a thing for young girls.”
