A former Bradford man has been jailed for six years after raping a 12-year-old girl in woodland.

Waqas Gul, aged 23, formerly of St Leonard's Grove, Girlington, admitted he raped the youngster by forcing her to perform a sex act on him while in fields in Cheshire.

Chester Crown Court heard yesterday that the victim had met Gul when she and a friend were in Stoke-on-Trent on May 30 last year.

The girl's friend saw a car and thought it belonged to a friend of hers, so the two went to speak to Gul who was a passenger in the vehicle.

As they drove towards Cheshire, the conversation turned to sexual matters, but the girls made it plain they were not interested, the court was told.

Barrister Simon Medland, prosecuting, said: "At that stage they thought it was a reasonably diverting thing. There was no great threat of imminent danger."

The men ended up parking near playing fields and Gul and the 12-year-old walked off towards a wood while the girl's friend stayed with the car driver

Mr Medland said: "It was at that point that the girl began to apprehend she was in trouble, she became scared.

"He began to behave in a sexual way towards her. She was annoyed by this and it became apparent to her that the defendant had a sexual encounter in mind.

"She didn't want that to happen, but the defendant with his greater age, weight and his sex managed to overcome any resistance."

The two returned to the car, and the girls were dropped off. The girl told her family what had happened and police were called.

Police snared Gul - who was living in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, at the time of the incident - when a suspicious stain on the victim's clothing was found to match his DNA.

He initially denied rape, but pleaded guilty on the first day of a trial in December, on the basis that he did not use excessive force or violence.

Catherine O'Reilly, mitigating, said Gul had thought the girl was 16 and was "deeply remorseful" for what he did.

She said: "Mr Gul has asked me to express to the court he was under the impression that the lady was 16 years of age. He knows that's not going to particularly help him in any way, but if he'd known her real age he would never have intended such an act."

But Judge Stephen Clarke said: "For the victim it is an extremely distressing event in their lives, it's something that will have an ongoing effect.

"The court accepts that you did not use force, but it is quite apparent to this court that there is nothing that indicates that she was anything other than unwilling to carry out this act."