A MAN has been found guilty of abducting a teenage girl and sexually assaulting her.

Preston Crown Court heard Dean Hughes, 47, of Temple Street, Nelson, committed the offences against the same girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, over a two-month period.

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The court heard officers launched a search for the girl after she went missing on Sunday, August 28.

She was found in a tent on a farmer’s field in Cumbria on Thursday, September 1, along with Hughes and a second man Dale Beresford, 22, of Temple Street, Nelson.

Hughes denied three allegations of sexual activity with a girl aged between 13 and 15, two counts of taking a child without lawful authority and one rape.

A jury cleared him of the rape allegation but he was found guilty on all other counts.

All the offences took place between July 1 and August 28, last year.

Beresford admitted one charge of abducting a child between August 27 and September 1, at a hearing last year.

Both men have been remanded in custody and will be sentenced at Preston Crown Court on March 15.