FAIRGROUND worker Jonathan Neate has been jailed for six months after admitting carrying out a sex act on a 13-year-old girl he met in Melksham.

Neate, 24, will also be on licence for a further two years when his sentence has ended so he can undergo a sex offenders programme.

Judge John McNaught, sitting at Swindon Crown Court on Friday, also banned him from working with children. Robin Shellard, prosecuting, told the court Neate, who was 22 at the time, was working for a funfair in Melksham when the offence took place in July 2004.

He said one night after the fair the young victim went back to his caravan where alcohol was available and the indecent assault took place. But the victim did not report the offence for about a year.

Neate, of Lower Innox, Frome, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child. He was facing a more serious charge but changed his plea on the morning of his trial in June.

Sue Evans, defending, said the sexual contact with the young girl had been consensual and she said she was 16, although it became clear to him she wasn't. In the two years since the offence took place she said her client has not been in any further trouble until he was arrested for taking without consent in June.

He also does not have any convictions for similar offences on his record, she said. Neate was placed into foster care at the age of seven meaning he no longer had any contact with any of his family.

"Although he is alone in life he is a very resourceful man and a very industrious man," Mrs Evans said. He had always been in work, she said, but had left the funfair and was now working through an agency.

Judge McNaught said: "This girl was 13 and you were in your early twenties and the law is there to protect young girls against themselves. "What you did was a serious matter and I am quite sure it calls for a prison sentence."

As well as jailing him for six months with a two-year extended licence and banning him from working with children, Neate will also have to register as a sex offender for ten years.