A YOUNG man who had sex with a 14-year-old schoolgirl and then threatened her friends after they found out has been jailed.
Shakore Henry had pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of sexual activity with a child.
He also admitted further charges of making threats to kill, sending a malicious communication and using threatening words and behaviour.
The 20-year-old, of St Pauls Square, Leamington, was jailed for three years by Judge Anthony Potter, and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
Prosecutor Gary Venturi said Henry had first met the girl in 2017, and knew she was only 14 but told her to tell his friends she was 16 ‘to save difficulty’ if they knew her true age.
When he asked her for sex she said she was not ready, but after texts ‘of a sexualised nature’ were exchanged, she agreed, and they had intercourse on two occasions.
After her friends found out Henry, who was 19 at the time, made threats to them not to get involved.
In April last year another young man ‘became the subject of unwanted attention from the defendant’ over a £200 drug debt he was said to owe to another person.
Demanding the repayment of the money, Henry threatened to kill him.
Lucy Tapper, defending, said Henry, who has been diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder, was ‘exceptionally close’ to his twin brother, and being apart from him while in custody was causing them great difficulty.
Of the threats he made to the girl’s friends, she pointed out: “He didn’t act in a violent way, it was all talk.”
In relation to the incident in April, Miss Tapper said Henry had been exposed to criminality from a young age and had been sent by someone else to enforce the debt.
Jailing Henry, Judge Potter told Henry: “You are in one sense a rather immature young man, and I have regard to your upbringing. You have had a range of difficulties in your still short life.
“You have had no positive role model apart from your grandfather, who has died while you have been in custody.”
