A man has been jailed after he became infatuated with a 15-year-old girl and arranged to meet her after sending her sexually explicit texts.
Sahhwat Ali was over 40 but lied and pretended to be nearer 30.
The teenager said she was going to the library but instead met Ali at a property that was being renovated in Huddersfield Road, Dewsbury.
Ali kissed her and touched her over her clothing.
Andrew Horton, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court that at one stage the girl described Ali, then 43, lying on a sofa on top of her simulating sex while both had their clothes on. But when she told him to stop he did.
He had given the girl a phone to contact him and after their contact came to light the messages were discovered in which he professed his love for her.
When he was questioned at the time he denied responsibility saying: “I didn’t touch her. She’s absolutely lying.”
Lee Kanu QC, representing Ali, said he had found it hard to admit letting down his family. He had stopped as soon as the girl asked him.
“This is an infatuation that came about one way or the other,” said Mr Kanu. “He is a man in his 40s who has never committed any offences.
“This is an older man who has had his head turned. If she was 16 it would have been another matter but she was 15 and it is a matter he has paid dearly for.”
Ali, now 46, of Gardens Crescent, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, admitted sexual activity with a child in June 2014 and was jailed for 20 weeks and ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years.
Recorder Bryan Cox QC said there was a considerable age difference between them and the level of grooming made an immediate prison sentence necessary.
“It is clear over a couple of weeks you set out to persuade her to engage in sexual activity,” he said.
He added that some of the texts were sexually explicit sent for that very reason.
