A MAN who struck up a relationship with a 15-year-old schoolgirl after committing a string of offences while on licence has walked free from court.

Ryan Moger grinned in the dock at Southampton Crown Court after a judge ruled he should be given a “final chance”.

Moger, of Vine Road, was answering charges of child abduction, blackmail and fraud, all committed while serving a suspended sentence for involvement in a burglary.

The 21-year-old, who has severe learning difficulties, admitted the charges.

The court heard how authorities had already warned Moger of the inappropriateness of his relationship with the girl – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – who he had been seeing for four months.

But on October 30 last year police went to his house after the girl’s mother reported her missing.

Moger was arrested after officers found her hiding on the roof after locking herself in the bathroom.

Prosecutor Siobhan Linsley told how the couple were “extremely distressed” at being separated, adding: “She said she wanted to stay with him because he kept her safe.”

The court heard how three months previously Moger twice threatened and verbally abused a 17-year-old boy for hugging the same girl. He hid a can of lager under his coat, pretending it was a gun, and tried to force the boy to buy him alcohol.

Ms Linley said the boy managed to escape, but was “too frightened” to leave home afterwards.

Two weeks later Moger was arrested again after attempting to use a stolen debit card to purchase a car worth £1,400, the court heard.

In mitigation Ximena Jones for Moger, stressed her client’s learning difficulties meant he had a mental age similar to the girl and said: “We are not dealing with an older manipulative man”

She added his condition made him less able to grasp the conditions of his suspended sentence in relation to the other offences and that he had already been remanded in jail for nine months.

Judge Derwin Hope imposed a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years telling him: “I am prepared to give you a final chance.

“But I make it clear to you that if you carry on offending you will be facing further custody again.”

Moger was also ordered to complete 70 hours’ unpaid work and pay a £120 victim surcharge.