A judge has criticised the law for stopping him jailing a man who had sex with a teenage girl over a 15-month period.
Judge Christopher Leigh said he wanted to pass a “harsher” sentence on Frederick Olusina, but was restricted by what parliament allows.
Olusina, a software engineer admitted having sex with the 14-year-old girl after meeting her in an internet chatroom for teenagers.
The 36-year-old pleaded guilty to two charges of unlawful sexual intercourse, at Southampton Crown Court on Thursday.
He was sentenced to 15 months in prison for each, to run concurrently.
As he sentenced Olusina, Judge Leigh said: “In your defence counsel’s submission this was not in your mind a short-term, transient exploitation of a vulnerable girl. In my mind that is exactly what it was.
“I pass a sentence of imprisonment which many people might think, and I do think, is less than it should be, but I am constrained by what parliament allows me to consider.”
The court heard Olusina first met the girl, from Portsmouth, last year, through the TeenChat.com website.
Charles Thomas, prosecuting, told the court Olusina had originally told the girl he was 17.
Mr Thomas said the girl was a vulnerable schoolgirl who had been having a difficult time at home after the divorce of her parents.
‘In control’
After several months of talking to each other via the Internet, and by using mobile phone text messaging, the girl agreed to meet Olusina at Fareham, near Portsmouth, on 30 June, the court heard.
He took her to his home in Tindale Road, Southampton, where he climbed into bed with her and had sex with her twice during the night, the court heard.
Mr Thomas told the court: “The girl said he seemed to be in control and she felt she was no match for him, she said she just did what he said.”
Olusina was ordered to sign on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years after his release from prison.
