A BULLY on steroids used an under-age girl for his sexual gratification, York Crown Court heard.

Mehran Nassiri, prosecuting, said Kieran Ira Phillips, then 20, wanted the 15-year-old and a 16-year-old to take part in a threesome with him but they refused.

He called the older girl his "little sex slave" and the younger his "little princess". When out in public, he pushed the younger into some public toilets.

On another occasion he tried to get her to touch him sexually.

After the younger girl went to the police, he offered the older girl £200 through an intermediary to change her police statement and sent her threats, said Mr Nassiri.

His barrister Robert Stevenson said he had started using steroids in 2016 and that had led to him committing crimes.

Phillips, of Huby Court, Speculation Street, pleaded guilty to assault, sexual assault and witness intimidation.

He was jailed for seven months to be served after the 20 months he is already serving for offences of actual bodily harm and assault committed when he and some mates, all in drink, beat up two servicemen late at night.

Phillips must also register as a sex offender for seven years and was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order banning him from contacting the girls in the case for five years.

Judge Andrew Stubbs QC said many thought steroids were harmless.

"One only needs to look at the downward spiral and the trouble you have got into since you started using them to see that is not the case," he told Phillips.

"You were in a bullying frame of mood with this young girl and used your physical strength and your greater age to use her for your own sexual gratification."

Mr Stevenson said since being sent to jail at the end of July, Phillips had come off steroids. He was taking courses in prison and hoped to rebuild his life after his release.

It was not clear whether the younger girl had actually touched Phillips sexually and there had been no actual violence towards the older girl.