A FAST FOOD worker’s teenage past came back to haunt him when a girl revealed how he had tried to rape her when she was six.

Gary Stock, now 22, was 15 when the child visited his mother’s house in Tang Hall, York Crown Court heard.

The girl, now in her teens, told a jury how he sexually assaulted her in an upstairs room, but jumped up and stopped his rape bid just before his mother came upstairs.

Stock’s mother, Yvonne, who gave evidence on his behalf, denied coming across him alone with the girl and a prosecution claim that she shouted: “Wait until your father gets back” at him.

Stock, of Constantine Avenue, Tang Hall, denied attempted rape, but the jury convicted him after nearly five hours in retirement and he must now sign on the Sex Offenders’ Register. They acquitted him of a separate charge of raping the girl, which he also denied.

“You have been convicted of a plainly very serious offence committed many years ago,” the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told Stock, granting him bail. “She was only six, you were 15.” He warned Stock that he could be jailed when he returns to court in a few weeks’ time after probation officers prepare a pre-sentence report on him.

Opening the prosecution, Tina Dempster told the jury the girl kept silent for years. Then, last year, she became upset after hearing a conversation between her mother and another person. Her mother asked her what the matter was, and she revealed that Stock had been “messing about with her”.

Stock alleged the girl was lying and denied any sexual impropriety with her. He claimed he was never alone with her during the visit to his family’s home.

Mrs Stock alleged she always kept a close eye on any child visiting her home.

Stock’s long-time employer, Michael Wilkinson, said Stock was “very well-known” in the neighbourhood and always ready with a smile for elderly people. Mr Wilkinson ran an ice-cream and takeaway van business before going into taxis.