A former prisoner has admitted having sex with a 15-year-old girl he met after his release from jail.

Ryan Bowen, aged 25, was warned he is likely to receive another custodial sentence after he pleaded guilty to three offences relating to the same girl.

Bowen, formerly of Bunting Close, Teignmouth, but now of Totnes Road, Paignton, admitted two counts of sexual activity with a child and one of inciting sexual activity with a child.

All the offences took place in April 2014 and a judge criticised the long delay in bringing them to court.

Bowen denied three offences of abusing a nine-year-old girl and these are to left to lie on file.

Recorder Mr David Bartlett ordered Bowen to sign on the sex offenders’ register and granted him bail pending his sentence next month, at which a probation report will be available.

He told him: ’These are serious offences. While they do not involve lack of consent, they are nevertheless serious offences of abuse because of the vulnerability of the victim.

’In the circumstances, you are highly likely to go to prison. I am going to give you a chance to help yourself by cooperating with the probation service which will look at alternatives. You must recognise the strong likelihood is of imprisonment.’

The judge described the delay in bringing the cases to court as ’a lamentable performance’.

Bowen was jailed for 21 months in April 2013 for dangerous driving and aggravated vehicle taking. He admitted knocking down and injuring a pedestrian with whom he had argued earlier in the evening.

He claimed the accident was pure coincidence and he lost control of the car, which he had borrowed from his girlfriend without permission, while changing a CD.