FELIXSTOWE: A chef has been jailed for 21 months for sexually touching a 15-year-old girl.

Anthony Braithwaite, 38, of Shotley Close, Felixstowe, had denied the charge which happened in October 2005 but was convicted by a jury after a trial at Ipswich Crown Court.

Braithwaite had further denied raping three girls aged between 14 and 15 between November 2004 and July 2005 and was cleared of all three charges.

He was arrested in February this year.

Lindsay Cox, prosecuting, said the charge of sexually touching the 15-year-old girl related to an occasion when he kissed her and undid the top button of her jeans before she told him to stop.

During the trial it was alleged that Braithwaite, who had a sideline in selling clothes on the internet, had sex with the three alleged rape victims without their consent after they went to his home.

One of the girls, aged 15, later claimed that Braithwaite had made her pregnant but he claimed that she had initiated sex and what happened was consensual.

The court heard a DNA test proved Braithwaite was the child’s father.

Jurors were told that after being arrested and informed by interviewing officers that he was the father, he admitted having sex with her, but said he believed her to be of a consensual age.