A married man who used a 15-year-old schoolgirl as a sex object was jailed for 21 months today.

Amjid Raj, 31, of Swallow Street, Keighley, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child in September 2007.

Prosecutor Timothy Capstick told Bradford Crown Court the single offence took place at the girl’s home.

She confided in her school friends about what had happened. Two months later, her mother found out and the police were alerted.

In September 2008, Raj was charged with rape. His guilty plea to the less serious offence was accepted by the Crown.

Mr Capstick said Raj was imprisoned for five years in 1999 for supplying Class A drugs.

He had no record for sex offences.

Stephen Wood, Raj’s barrister, said, although “troubling and serious” it was a single incident and Raj believed the girl was consenting.

The court heard the defendant’s wife was standing by him.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said it was accepted Raj did not intimidate or coerce the teenager.

But the girl’s family were outraged by what Raj had done and there was a “troubling, serious and somewhat sinister side to the matter”.

The judge said Raj treated the child “very much as a brief object”.

Raj has been added to the Sex Offenders’ Register and the judge made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order against him for five years. He was also disqualified from working with children.