(Image: Durham Constabulary)
A County Durham child rapist has been jailed for abusing a girl when he was a teenager.
Kurtis Stead sneaked the girl into his County Durham care home through a back door to avoid CCTV cameras.
Stead, now 21, was banned from being alone with children after he was given a sexual harm prevention order following his conviction for raping a boy.
Teesside Crown Court heard that Stead knew the girl was underage when he abused her.
Prosecutor Nick Peacock said the girl’s relative dropped her at a park near Stead’s home before he sneaked her inside.
He said: “The defendant started texting her asking if she was a virgin and she said she was.”
Mr Peacock said the child went to where Stead was living and he abused her. The victim said: “I struggle meeting new people and I don’t like inviting people over.
“When someone tells me they are in care or see someone around my age using a button mobile phone, I feel sick with memories of what happened.
“It still affects my personal relationships now.”
Mr Peacock said Stead was convicted of raping a boy under 13 when Stead was 14.
He said Stead received a 12-month detention and training order after breaching his supervision order.
The judge heard that Stead had also been jailed for repeatedly breaching his sexual harm prevention order.
Stead, of no fixed address, admitted abusing the child on the day his trial was due to begin.
His lawyer, Paul Cleasby, said Stead was 17 when he offended and should be sentenced as a youth.
“If he had not had his previous convictions, he may well have been dealt with in a way that would not have resulted in him losing his liberty,” he said.
“The reality is that he does have the previous conviction and it is a significant one.”
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Judge Edward Legard jailed Stead for 15 months.
“A troubling feature of this case is that when you committed the offence at 17, you were already a convicted rapist and subject to a sexual harm prevention order,” he said.
“Over three years you have repeatedly breached your sexual harm prevention order and received several prison sentences.”
Stead was given a restraining order and an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.