A MAN who indecently assaulted a 14-year-old girl after plying her with drink has been jailed for two years by a judge.

Father-of-three Peter Graveling was told by Judge Peter Bowers that his seduction of the teenager was one of the worst cases he had seen.

Graveling, 38, of Bakewell Place, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, had been found guilty of indecent assault by a jury last month after it failed to return a verdict on a charge of rape.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Graveling used his own family as "bait" to lure the girl to his home on the pretext that one of them was poorly and needed looking after.

He then persuaded the girl's mother to allow her to stay overnight, assaulting her after she went to bed to lie down.

Graveling, who had claimed that he was asleep at the time of the alleged attack, on October 9 last year, had told his trial that he was set up.

Yesterday, Judge Bowers ignored requests from Graveling's counsel, Rod Hunt, not to jail him and instead to make him serve a community punishment order.

The judge said that after Graveling had served his two-year prison sentence he would be placed on licence for a period of two and-a-half years.

He would also have to register as a sex offender for life.