A MAN has been jailed for three years for the sexual assault of a schoolgirl.

Muhaamad Ansari, 34, was last month found guilty of attacking a 15-year-old girl near a mosque off Hebrew Road, Burnley.

A court heard that married Ansari, of Allen Street, Burnley, had allegedly led the “vulnerable” and drunken girl away from Thompson Park and sexually assaulted her.

At Preston Crown Court, Ansari was jailed for three years and placed on the sex offenders register for life.

He was also given a five-year sex offenders prevention order and disqualified from ever working with children.

Ansari’s sentencing came after a second trial at Burnley Crown Court last month. The first, ear-lier this year, collapsed.

Afterwards, DC Leah Bennett said: “It is a good result for us and we are pleased because we have a significant number of these cases which involve young, vulnerable girls.

“A lot of credit also has to go to the victim. It is bad enough going to court to give evidence once, let alone twice.”

Ansari was arrested hours after the attack in February 2008.

He admitted having sex with the teenager but a jury decided that she never gave him consent.