Man spared jail after having sex with drunk 13-year-old girl

A man who took advantage of a drunk teenager at a party has been spared custody and told to undergo a sex offenders’ programme

• Man had sex with underage girl but denied rape.

• Girl says she was very drunk.

Steven Pollock, 22, was originally accused of raping the 13-year-old victim, but admitted having sex with an underage girl.

A court was told that Pollock had been ostracised in his home town of Maybole, Ayrshire, and his father had received death threats, following publicity in which the girl’s family attacked the reduction in the charge.

Lord Turnbull told Pollock that he had committed a serious offence, but added: “It is important to understand that the offence arises out of consensual conduct rather than any form of force, grooming or manipulation.”

Upset

Pollock was sentenced to three years’ supervision, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work, and to attend a sex offenders’ programme.

Pollock, then 20, and the girl had been drinking at a party in October last year, and she described herself as being very drunk, with blurred vision. He sat her on his knee and kissed her, and they had sex under a blanket on the floor of a bedroom. The girl later became upset and the police were contacted. Pollock told officers he knew she had been underage but had thought she was “at least 14 or 15.”

The defence counsel, Susan Duff, said the offence was opportunistic, and there had been no planning or grooming. Pollock had found himself to be front-page news and it had been “a deeply shocking experience for him and his family.”

Mrs Duff added: “He clearly understands what he did was wrong, but he struggles to understand the seriousness of the offence. There is a clear issue of lack of awareness of appropriate behaviour.”