A MAN had sex with a 15-year-old girl after she drank two-and-a half litres of cider, a court heard.

Dennis McHugh, aged 45, began to indecently assault her while she lay drunk on the floor and while a friend of the girl was still in the room.

Then, when her friend left the room to sit on the stairs, McHugh had full intercourse with the schoolgirl.

At Bolton Crown Court yesterday, Judge William Morris said the defendant was criminally irresponsible and jailed him for six months. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for seven years.

The court heard that once McHugh realised what he had done, he stopped having sex with the girl and got a knife and asked her to kill him.

McHugh, of Sefton Street, Whitefield, admitted unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16.

Defending, Bunty Batra said that the sex had been consensual and that the girl had stayed at McHugh's house for 90 minutes after the attack and had visited him twice afterwards before the incident was reported to the police.

It had been wholly out of character for McHugh who was himself a vulnerable man, suffering from a severe depressive illness and severe anxiety.