A former soldier has been jailed after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Norfolk.

Karl Foskett, 35, who served with the Royal Anglian Regiment in Iraq, was found guilty of sexual activity with a child at Hemsby, Norfolk.

King's Lynn Crown Court heard the victim, who was 14 at the time and cannot be identified for legal reasons, was given alcohol by Foskett before the offence, which happened on August 22, 2018.

Foskett, of Russet Drive, St Albans, appeared at court on Monday (October31) having been found guilty after a trial in May.

Lori Tucker, prosecuting, said Foskett had "used alcohol on the victim to facilitate the offence".

She said there was also a "significant disparity in age".

Foskett, who was not serving as a soldier at the time of the offence, has 14 previous convictions for a total of 23 offences, which show an "unhappy history as violence is concerned".

Jailing Foskett for a total of six years, Judge Alice Robinson said the victim had not consented to what he did.

Judge Robinson said she has suffered psychological harm and had attempted suicide as a result of the sexual abuse she suffered.

Angela Kerner, mitigating, said Foskett had a drink, got merry and then committed the offence, which she insisted was "totally out of character" and a "one off blip".

She said Foskett had never been charged with a sexual offence before or since and was very remorseful and does not pose a danger to children.

The barrister said Foskett had been "damaged" by his experiences in the army and left with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which he was now trying to get help with.

She said Foskett, who had been physically abused as a child, went into the army in 2004 and was "happy to serve his country".

But she said the army "damaged him" and left him suffering PTSD as a result of experiences like seeing a close friend "blown to pieces" in front of him while in Iraq

Foskett was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) for 15 years and put on the sex offenders register for life.