A man who had sex with a drunken 14-year-old girl after offering to walk her home has been given a suspended jail sentence at Worcester Crown Court.

Ryan Faizey, now 21, of Martin Way, Ledbury, was found not guilty of rape after a trial but Judge Christopher Plunkett said at the sentencing that the jury feeling was that it was more like sexual activity with a child.

He felt that Faizey, of previous good character, would benefit more from a suspended sentence than going directly to custody. He suspended the 18-month sentence for two years and ordered Faizey to undertake 300 hours rehabilitation work with the probation service.

The judge made a sexual offences prevention order for ten years and ordered Faizey to sign on the sexual offenders register for a similar time.

A previous court was told that the 14-year-old girl had drunk half a bottle of vodka before going out on the town where she met up with Faizey, who had also been drinking. He said he would walk her home but instead took her down a public footpath, formerly a disused railway track known as The Lines.

The prosecution said she was so drunk she could not have consented to sex.

Anna Midgley, mitigating, passed a reference to the judge which showed that Faizey had been acting in a constructive and conscientous way previously. The offence was out of character.

Judge Plunkett said he was convinced that Faizey was not a sexual predator but an innocent abroad, as was his victim. On the night in question, he had been unable to control himself after drinking heavily.

Faizey had started the evening with the good intention of helping a relative but then switched his attention to the 14-year-old, a child who was obviously drunk. He abandoned her on the dark and narrow footpath with overhanging trees but later helped friends concerned where she was .