September 2015

Man jailed for grabbing girl’s bottom after propositioning her for sex

A MAN’S inappropriate behaviour with a schoolgirl ended in him propositioning her before grabbing her bum, a court was told.

Darren Richard Lough offered to teach the shy 15-year-old how to groom a horse, but it resulted in him displaying grooming-type behaviour himself – on the girl.

Durham Crown Court heard her mother felt Lough did not appear to know the “boundaries” when an adult male interacts with younger females, except if other adults were present, when he would, “rein in his behaviour.”

The court heard the offending incident happened in November, 2013, when he asked the girl to have sex with him in the stables, before squeezing her buttock with some force.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said it deeply upset the girl at the time and went on to have a longer term effect, in particular setting her back in her school work.

Mr Dodds said, despite Lough’s claim it was a one-off act, “there was a degree of grooming this girl through a connection with horses.”

Lough, now 30, of Gill Street, Consett, admitted sexually touching a child, but only changed his plea shortly before a scheduled trial following a previous denial.

The court heard that in a separate case he also admitted three breaches of a non-molestation order, for persistently trying to contact a former partner despite of a court order.

In the latter two cases he was in breach of bail granted following the previous offences.

Mr Dodds said the victim lived in fear he may be watching her, resulting in her moving home.

Imposing a prison sentence totalling two years and five months, Judge Simon Hickey also made Lough subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, forbidding unsupervised contact with females under-16, and registration as a sex offender, for ten years.