Child abuser jailed for historical abuse

A court heard that Lee Lewis preyed on the teenager for months, having managed to get close to her because she was the daughter of family friends.

A jury found him guilty of three counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity between October 9 2004 and October 8 2005 when his victim was 15 years old.

The 43-year-old, of Cottonside, Heritage Way, Wigan, was also found guilty, after a Bolton Crown Court trial, of two further counts of making indecent images of a child within that 12-month period.

The images were said to fall into what the law deems category B: the second worst level of seriousness.

For the three incitement charges, Lewis was given sentences of six years, six years and three years to run concurrently.

He was also sentenced to one year in prison for the first indecent image charge, again to run concurrently with the other terms, but no separate penalty was issued for the second images offence.

The defendant had also originally been charged with one count of non-penetrative sexual touching of the girl but that was later dropped.

But Lewis was also given an indefinite restraining order from contacting the victim and two other people.

The hearing was told the defendant had been a family friend and he had started contacting the victim directly when she was 14.

When she was 15 they started to spend a lot of time together and it was then that the sexual offences took place.

The victim finally came forward with a complaint against him in 2016 and he was subsequently arrested by police.

Lewis denied that the abuse had taken place.