A SELBY man allegedly had sex with a girl knowing she was underage, a jury has heard.

Both the girl and the woman she was living at the time claimed at York Crown Court that they told Jamie Richard Suttle, now 25, that she was aged 15.

Minutes later, he and the girl had sex together in her bedroom, the jury heard.

Suttle, of Selby, denies a charge of having sexual activity with an underage child. The defence claim he didn't know her true age and that she appeared to be at least 16 and therefore of age to have sex legally.

The girl alleged she told Suttle she was 15 over Facebook before they met for the first time.

The woman claimed that when the couple returned to her home on Easter Monday last year she was concerned She alleged she asked him if he knew how old the girl was and told her the girl was 15.

"He said yes, he knew she was only 15. He just gave me a straight answer," she alleged in the witness box.

"I asked him if he had bought the alcohol that she had been drinking and he replied he did.

York Press:

"I asked him if he consider that it was appropriate to buy a 15-year-old alcohol."

Asked what Suttle's response, she replied: "She wanted it so he bought her it."

Earlier the girl had alleged she had lied about her age when the couple met two Jehovah Witnesses earlier in the evening "to protect" Suttle and when buying some alcohol.

But she was adamant she had told Suttle her real age.

She alleged Suttle had generally bought the alcohol when they were in a pub that evening but at one stage he had given her some money and she had bought some alcohol.

The woman alleged that she had taken the girl in at the request of the police because at the time the teenager had nowhere to go.

She was only living with her on a temporary basis and she had had no formal training in how to handle teenagers.

The girl agreed with defence suggestions that she had told a man in Howden that she was 17 and a man in Goole that she was 19. Both were some years older than her.

The trial continues.