A MARRIED father-of-two toured Lancashire with a 14-year-old girl and her friend after telling hotel staff they were his nieces.

But a judge ruled that it was not in the public interest to jail bus driver Aaron Porter after being told no sexual activity took place.

Porter, 23, of Three Rivers Country Park, West Bradford, Clitheroe, pleaded guilty to child abduction and possession of an indecent photograph of a child on his mobile phone.

He was placed on a three-year community order with a requirement to undertake a sex offenders' programme.

Porter booked into two hotels with the girl after she went missing for several days from Accrington and also took her to Blackpool.

The court heard the teenager, from Accrington, and another girl went missing for around five days in June last year.

Philip Potter, prosecuting, said sometime after going missing, the girls met up with the defendant. He drove them to the home of one of their friends, with the girls sleeping on the settee and him sleeping on the floor.

Porter left the house at one stage to cover a bus service shift, from around midnight to 4am, and the following day he drove one of them to his caravan at Clitheroe, he said.

The girl kissed him while sitting on his knee, and it was on this occasion that Porter learned her true age, the court was told.

During the time the girls were missing, the defendant booked into two Travel Lodge hotels in Horwich and Blackpool. He told hotel staff the girls were his nieces.

The girl said to have been abducted by Porter told police she did not believe he had done anything illegal, the court was told.

The defendant stated that the phone image must have resulted from him handing a phone to the girls and the girls playing with it, the court was told.

Porter was a man of previous good character, but the prosecution said on a number of occasions, he had been warned about his conduct with regard to under-age girls on his bus.

Mr Keith Harrsion, defending, told the court that Porter had since resigned from his job.

Mr Harrison said: "He is quite a naive person who also has a kind nature. He has socialised with people younger than himself. He is deeply remorseful.

"He has lost his marriage. He now cannot have access to his two children which is a source of great upset."