A man who had sex with an under-age girl when he was 18 has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Leeds Crown Court heard Anthony Esteves told police he met the girl, who was from Huddersfield, through Facebook and they became friends last year.

She was aged 15 years and nine months and would visit him at his flat in Parklands, Holmfirth.

After one occasion he said she saw him safely home when he was under the influence of the drug Spice, to which he was then addicted.

Mark Mckone prosecuting told the court on Tuesday that Esteves admitted to police he knew the girl’s age and had not planned to have sex with her, saying they usually just watched television.

The girl had not co-operated with police inquiries but her mother was suspicious and checking her clothes Esteves DNA was found in semen on her knickers. He had no previous convictions for sex offences.

Andrew Petterson, representing him, told the court a probation report had identified him as very immature at the time of the offences.

He had since made efforts to address his illicit drug use but was still having to take medication for psychosis and suffered mental health problems which restricted his working. He was now in a relationship which had last more than a year.

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Judge Geoffrey Marson QC commented that Esteves’s health issues were self-inflicted as a result of his use of Spice and warned him to stay away from it in the future.

Esteves, now 20, admitted sexual activity with a child and was given 16 months in prison, suspended for two years with 30 rehabilitation activity days. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for five years.

Judge Marson told him: “It is a criminal offence as you know to have sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16 and in very many circumstances it is necessary to mark it with a custodial sentence.

“In your particular case, bearing in mind the circumstances in which it came to be committed, there is no suggestion of grooming, no suggestion you specifically targeted a vulnerable girl, for that is what she was.”

But because of his own immaturity and not having committed any further offences since, and because he was addressing his drug addiction, the sentence could be suspended, the judge said.

“Spice is a wicked substance, I deal with people who have committed very serious offences using it. It is dangerous stuff and will ruin your life,” the judge concluded.