A SHOPKEEPER who plied a schoolgirl with drink and took advantage of her has gone to prison for 12 months.

Tahir Mohammed, 25, twice sexually assaulted the 13-year-old after taking her back to the flat above his shop and challenging her to a drinking contest, Burnley Crown Court had heard.

Sentencing Mohammed, who still protests his innocence, Judge Raymond Bennett said the law was designed to protect young girls under the age of 16.

He went on: "There has to be punishment for people who behave towards a young girl in the way that you did.

"If it was not your first time in custody, the sentence would be longer." Mohammed, of Royds Street, Accrington, denied two charges of indecent assault and was convicted by a jury.

He is on the sex offenders' register now for ten years.

Jeremy Grout-Smith, prosecuting, said the defendant had a shop on Washington Street, Accrington, and the victim went in to buy some chocolates.

Mohammed asked her to have a drink later on and picked her up in his car.

He took her back to the flat above the shop and gave her two large vodkas and a bottle of alcoholic iron brew.

Mohammed was sitting on the bed with the girl and asked her to perform a sex act, after exposing himself.

The defendant kissed the girl and when she went into the bathroom, she found her underwear down and Mohammed trying to press himself against her.

Mr Grout-Smith added when the defendant was arrested, he said he had only kissed the girl.

He had previous convictions for public order offences, but none for sex offences.

Mark Stuart, defending, said Mohammed still denied the offences, but there could be nothing but a custodial sentence.

The offences happened on one night only, rather than over a period of time, and the girl was not without sexual experience.

It was not a case of initiating a 13-year-old girl into something she had played no part in before.

Mr Stuart said Mohammed had never lost his liberty before.

By and large, he was a very hard working young man, employed within the family business since he left school. He worked long hours.

He went on: "The court will have to impose a custodial sentence. It is going to affect the family and their business."

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