Image copyright Alan Lewis-Photopress Belfast Image caption Conair Adams-Whyte pleaded guilty to a single charge of raping the schoolgirl in the bedroom of his home in 2015

A west Belfast man who raped a 12-year-old girl and made her pregnant has been jailed for ten-and-a-half months.

Conair Adams-Whyte, 20, from Crocus Street, pleaded guilty to a single charge of raping the schoolgirl in the bedroom of his home in 2015.

He was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court on Friday.

The prosecution said that on 29 September 2015, police received a report that a 12-year-old girl was pregnant.

The police met the girl at her home and she told officers the father was Adams-Whyte, showing them a number of messages she had received from him on Facebook.

During a recorded interview, the girl told police that she was supposed to have been staying with Adams-Whyte's mother on the night in question, but that the woman failed to pick her up.

She said that some time later, the defendant arrived at her home to collect her by taxi and took her to the home he shared with his mother.

The pair watched television in the living room and she told police she asked Adams-Whyte where she was going to be sleeping.

The defendant told her there was a TV in his bedroom and she could sleep in another bedroom afterwards.

She told police the defendant kissed her, took off the bottom part of her clothing and then he took off the bottom part of his clothing and had sexual intercourse with her.

'Complete denial'

During the interview, she told police it was "sore'' but she said she did not tell him to stop.

Adams-Whyte was arrested two days later and police took a DNA sample from him, but he completely denied having sexual intercourse with the schoolgirl and was released on bail.

The following April, the girl gave birth and a DNA sample was taken from the baby, which proved the paternity of the defendant.

He was again arrested and, when told he was the child's father, Adams-Whyte "was speechless'', the prosecution said.

The defendant said he had been out celebrating his 19th birthday on the evening in question.

He had been drinking but was not drunk, had taken Diazepam tablets and had little recollection of the night, adding that he "didn't find her attractive''.

Image caption A judge at Belfast Crown Court acknowledged that Adams-Whyte was "a vulnerable young man with cognitive difficulties"

A victim impact report said the 12-year-old was not suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

It added that she was receiving support from a loving mother and her family, along with social services, as she coped with bringing up a child as a 14-year-old.

The Probation Service assessed Adams-Whyte as being at "a medium likelihood of reoffending", but he was not assessed as posing a danger to the public of causing serious harm in the future.

The defence counsel told the court the offence had not been pre-planned.

"There was no targeting involved and he is not attracted to prepubescents,'' said the lawyer.

'Difficult family background'

Passing sentence, the judge said that, although the victim was not suffering from post-traumatic stress, the birth of a child so young had a "wide-ranging impact on the entire trajectory of her life".

"Her life as a child has come to an end in many ways," she said.

Acknowledging the defendant had come from a "difficult family background'', the judge said Adams-Whyte was currently the subject of a "severe threat from a criminal element''.

"You have expressed shame for your offending and you agree that you took advantage of the situation," she said.

"I am taking into account the fact that you are a vulnerable young man with cognitive difficulties."

The defendant was sentenced to 21 months, with ten-and-a-half months in custody and ten-and-a-half on licence.

He has been placed on the sex offenders list for 10 years and barred from working with children.