A TEENAGER was jailed for four and a half years after admitting a string of sex offences - including raping a 12-year-old girl.

Bradley Hall, 18, from Darlington, was 16 when he asked the girl to his house before having sex with her.

He also had a six-week sexual relationship with a "vulnerable" underage girl when he was 17, which led to her later attempting suicide.

And he had more than 60 indecent images of a 17-year-old girl - itself an offence - on his phone when it was seized, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Sarah Mallett, prosecuting, said the 12-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had gone to her GP with her mother for emergency contraception and the GP had raised concerns with the police.

Hall had contacted the girl on social media, where she was listed as being 16 but she told him that she was just 12 years old.

Ms Mallett said: "She sent him pictures and they agreed to meet."

After they had sex he asked her to leave because his mother was returning home and she did not see him again. The victim felt he had taken advantage of her because he had told her he loved her.

He then started messaging a 13-year-old - and sent her explicit photos and videos of himself, the court heard, while she sent pictures of herself topless, through social media.

She told him she was 13, but he replied: "Age doesn't matter when you love someone."

The vulnerable 15-year-old victim he had a sexual relationship with had suffered from psychotic episodes, the court was told.

Ms Mallett said: "If she expressed reluctance (to have sex) he would say she was boring."

Richard Bennett, mitigating, said the 12-year-old victim was "a particularly vulnerable child".

But he said: "The defendant took issue that he deliberately targeted her because he didn't know of her background.

"He has pleaded guilty to rape which for any man is a huge thing to do.

"It is going to have a huge impact on the rest of his life. This is a statutory rape charge - this isn't a man who has forced himself on (the 12-year-old girl).

"He realised pretty quickly what he had done was very serious."

Hall has already served nine months on remand in Holme House Prison.

Judge Colin Burn said: "We have seen 14 offences taking place over a fairly narrow period of time when you were 16 going on 17.

"Two of the three girls were certainly extremely vulnerable. The reality is that both of them have suffered significantly. Any pre-existing problems have been made worse as a result of your quest for sexual gratification."

He jailed Hall for four years and six months, ordered his phone to be forfeited and served him with a restraining order and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.