A 19-year old man who met up with a 13-year-old girl and exchanged text messages with her despite being given a police caution for kissing her several months earlier has been sentenced to 21 months youth detention.

After his police caution in April last year, Mitchell Young continued to contact the girl by Facebook, text messages and wrote her letters, Ipswich Crown Court heard. He also met up with the girl on two occasions outside a supermarket in Beccles and tried to kiss her on the mouth, said Hugh Vass, prosecuting.

“He became angry when she refused,” said Mr Vass.

Young, of The Thoroughfare, Halesworth admitted meeting a child following sexual grooming between April and July last year.

He also admitted having a knife in Harrison’s Lane, Halesworth on July 19 and possessing two indecent images of children.

Sentencing him, Judge Rupert Overbury said he had come to the conclusion that Young had a sexual interest in 13 and 14-year-old girls.

He said that in addition to his contact with the 13-year-old girl despite being given a caution by the police for kissing her and a 12-year-old girl, Young also had two indecent pictures of girls in his laptop.

He said one of the pictures was of a girl aged about 12 with her breasts exposed and the other was of a 13-14-year-old girl having sex with an adult male.

In addition to sentencing Young to 21 months detention in a young offenders’ institution, Judge Overbury ordered him to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and made him the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.

Mr Vass told the court that on July 19 Young had been involved in an altercation in Halesworth with a man who grabbed him round the throat.

During the incident Young took a knife from his jacket sleeve and brandished it but did not use it, said Mr Vass.

Lindsay Cox, for Young, said that following the caution his client told the girl they must stop seeing each other, leaving her distraught.

After she had been admitted to hospital for self-harming her friends contacted Young and encouraged him to see her.

“He was an 18-year-old man, she was 13. It was inappropriate and wrong,” said Mr Cox.

He said that after being given the caution Young had received a number of threats and had carried a knife for protection.