A MAN who carried out a sex attack on a vulnerable teenager at a North-East beauty spot has been jailed for four years.

Former council worker Michael Sharpe pushed the 15-year-old to the ground and jumped on top of her before carrying out the assault at Hurworth Burn reservoir, in Castle Eden Walkway Country Park, County Durham.

The 40-year-old had driven the girl, who was in foster care, to the spot with the intention of having a sexual encounter with her, but thought she was 17, said Stephen Duffield, prosecuting.

He told the court: "She did shout she was only 15, but the defendant persisted and put his hands down her trousers. He was saying, 'you know you want to'.

"She then shouted again she was only 15 and that he should stop. He did and rolled away and she got up."

The girl and her friend had been visiting family in Hartlepool when Sharpe arrived to sort out a debt he owed to her friend's relative.

The victim went with him to ensure he returned with money and it was then that he carried out the attack.

Sharpe, of Elwick Road, Hartlepool, was due to stand trial for attempted rape and abduction, but pleaded guilty to indecent assault. The two other matters will lie on file.

Judge Peter Fox said: "The experience to which you subjected her was a horrific one. It was a secluded, isolated spot. She was in foster care and that was for good reasons. She is and was a particularly vulnerable person."

The court heard Sharpe had indecently assaulted a girl in a nightclub in 1980, when he was 16.