A MAN has been jailed for two years for having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Raja Saleem, 24, also infected the girl, who he met while living with family members in the Hopwood Lane area of Halifax, with a sexually transmitted disease, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The court heard how Saleem had been having a consensual relationship with the teenager, who had lost her virginity to him.

The matter was reported to police after the girl’s mother found out about the relationship.

Paul Fleming, for Saleem, said: “This is not a case of a predatory paedophile who has groomed a young woman. It is not one of a young person and a man in his 50s

“This was a relationship that evolved from a friendship.”

The court heard how Saleem, who was 23 at the time of the offence, had come from Luton to make a fresh start with his family in Halifax.

Her Honour Judge Linda Sutcliffe said: “The law is designed to protect young girls from their own weaknesses, girls who find themselves attracted to young men who are good-looking and attractive.”

She told Saleem: “The girl lost her virginity to you. I am quite satisfied that there can be no other sensible explanation for the sexual disease other than she got it from you.”

Saleem was jailed for two years, put on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and made the subject of a sexual offences protection order, which bans him from having unsupervised contact with young people for five years.