A MAN who tried to rape a teenage girl has been sent to prison for four years.

Clinton Foster had given a lift to the girl before he went on to force her out of the vehicle and and tried to rape her, holding her against the back of the car.

Before that crime he had sexually touched two other girls aged fifteen, a court was told.

Foster, 21, of Shawbrook Close, Hapton, had pleaded guilty to offences of attempted rape in December last year, sexual assault and two charges of sexual activity with a child. He had also admitted a physical assault on a man. Mr Philip Hall, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said Foster tried to kiss and touch two fifteen-year-old girls while giving them lifts in his car on two separate occasions.

The other sex offences were carried out against a fourteen-year-old girl after the defendant took her and another girl for a drive.

He went to a school area in Nelson and started to kiss her. She told him to stop, but he also put his hands inside her jeans.

The girl slapped his hands. Foster went on to force her out of the car, take her round the back and hold her against the rear of the vehicle before trying to rape her. Charles Brown, defending, said a report indicated it was unlikely Foster would re-offend and that he apologised for the hurt and distress that must have been caused to the girl in the attempted rape charge.

Judge Anthony Russell QC said: "A term of imprisonment of some length must follow because each of the offences are so serious that only such a sentence is appropriate".

The defendant was told he will be on the sex offenders list for the rest of his life and will be banned from working with children indefinitely.