A sex offender who got an underage girl pregnant and caused her to self-harm has been jailed for three years and four months.

Daniel Francis Chapman, 25, had had sex with the 15-year-old girl at their first meeting after getting in touch with her via Facebook, said Peter Hampton, prosecuting.

The girl had an abortion when she was five months pregnant, 11 days after doctors at York Hospital's accident and emergency department discovered her pregnancy.

Her mother had taken her there because she was suffering from stomach pains.

The Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, told Chapman he had put the girl under "significant pressure" because of the age difference and because he was an adult man. He had wanted to have sex because he had broken with his then girlfriend four months earlier.

"You had been looking for sex since then and happened upon the complainant who lived locally and you bought her cigarettes and the like and became her friend and encouraged her and flattered her, and then had sex with her," said the judge.

In addition to the jail term, he put Chapman on the sex offenders' register for life and made a five-year restraining order, banning him from having any contact with the girl.

Chapman, of York Road, Tadcaster, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with an underage girl. His barrister Vincent Blake-Barnard said his current girlfriend is expecting their child in a few weeks.

Reading the girl's victim impact statement, Mr Hampton said: "The incident has had a massive negative impact upon her and her being able to trust people."

The girl wrote that the crime had affected her social life and led to her suffering from anxiety and depression and she self-harmed herself to help her cope.

Mr Blake-Barnard said the effect of the conviction was that "everything has been swept away", he had lost his job as a joiner and would have difficulties in future after his release.

His current partner had said she would be waiting for him when he leaves prison.

Mr Hampton said Chapman initially denied having sex with the girl but after forensic scientists proved through DNA tests that he was the father of the girl's unborn child, he admitted his act.