AN ODD-job man who twice sexually assaulted a teenage girl has been jailed for three years. Paul Campbell, 29, repeatedly sent the 14-year-old text messages asking for sex, a court heard. The father-of-two was reported to police after the girl confided in

AN ODD-job man who twice sexually assaulted a teenage girl has been jailed for three years.

Paul Campbell, 29, repeatedly sent the 14-year-old text messages asking for sex, a court heard.

The father-of-two was reported to police after the girl confided in a friend in May.

Snaresbrook Crown Court last week heard Campbell struck after befriending the girl's family.

"They used to play-fight together and he touched her bottom," said David Paton, prosecuting.

Campbell sexually assaulted the girl in January at his home in Dagenham, while his partner was ill upstairs, the court heard.

He carried out a second attack in April after turning up at her school and offering to drive her home.

"She was alone at home," said Mr Paton.

"There was no mobile or landline. She went to her mother's bedroom to sort out washing.

"She heard the front door open, thought her mother was returning and called out. But the defendant said: 'No, it's me'.

"He came into the room and put his head on her tummy, making boyfriend overtures.

"She turned away, but he grabbed her arms. She then started to pinch him.

"She knew what was likely to occur and Campbell told her she was being spiteful. He told her to keep still and put his hands inside her underwear.

"Afterwards he said: 'I take liberties'."

Campbell was later arrested when the girl told a friend about the abuse.

In a victim impact statement she said her life had dramatically changed since the incidents.

Her mother said: "She never wants to go out and has withdrawn into herself."

Kim Jenkins QC, mitigating, said Campbell had learning difficulties, possibly dyslexia.

"He accepts he developed feelings that weren't right. He also entirely accepts misinterpreting the interest in him for deeper feelings," he said.

Judge David Radford told Campbell: "Whatever your feelings may have been, what you did you knew was wholly wrong.

"For a 14-year-old girl to have been exploited in this way, it has had a profound psychological effect on her - in terms of changes of behaviour."

Campbell, now of Eye Road, Broome, Suffolk, admitted two counts of sexual activity with a girl under 14.

Two counts of rape and one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, which Campbell denied, will lie on the court file