A MAN has been jailed for eight months after a DNA test proved he was the father of a 14-year-old girl's unborn child.

John Bainbridge, 33, of High Street, Rishton, admitted having unlawful sex with the teenager on two occasions during a holiday in the Whitehaven area of Cumbria.

Timothy Brennand, outlining the case at Carlisle Crown Court, described how the offences came to light after the girl fell pregnant. She had an abortion 10 weeks later.

When Bainbridge was interviewed by police, he admitted having consensual sex with the girl during November or December of 2000, but he said it was not him who had made her pregnant.

It was only after he underwent a DNA paternity test that it was proved he was the father.

Passing sentence, Judge Robert Brown outlined how Bainbridge committed the offences despite knowing that the girl had on earlier occasions been the victim of sexual attacks.

He told psychiatrists that she had 'hassled him' to sleep with her and he eventually succumbed, said Judge Brown.

He told Bainbridge: "It seems that you may well have been overwhelmed by her attentions towards you."

Judge Brown went on to acknowledge that Bainbridge himself had suffered abuse when he was aged between eight and 10. He was also blamed for the tragic drowning of his brother.

After an inadequate education at a special school, which left him unable to read or write, Bainbridge in later life found it difficult to make lasting relationships.

Only once in his life, when he was 24, did he form any kind of serious relationship with a woman of his own age. That lasted only four months.

He also suffered from depression and had recently inflicted 'self harm' on himself as a result of the pressure of the case. Probation service reports concluded that the defendant was a 'vulnerable person.'

Jailing Bainbridge Judge Brown ruled that he must remain on the sex offenders register for 10 years after his release from jail.

He must also after his release remain under probation service supervision for two years so he can take part in a sex offenders' group work programme.