A Suffolk hotel manager who sexually assaulted a schoolgirl has been warned he could be jailed when he is sentenced later this month.

Adam Ali, the manager of the White Horse Hotel in Leiston, pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court to five offences of sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl in January last year.

Judge Rupert Overbury said Ali, who was 35 at the time of the offences, had touched the victim over her clothing and on one occasion had put his leg over her body.

Adjourning sentence on Ali, now 36, until September 25, the judge said the maximum sentence he would receive was nine months but he hadn’t decided if this would be immediate or whether it could be suspended.

“Don’t go away thinking it’s going to be a suspended sentence and you are going back to the White Horse on September 25,” said the judge.

Judge Overbury asked for an impact statement to be obtained from the victim and ordered Ali, who has no previous convictions, to sign the sex offenders’ register on an interim basis.

Joanne Eley for Ali, of Parnell Road, Ipswich, said although the hotel was his business he was currently looking for someone to run it for him.