A MAN with an “extremely low” IQ has been jailed for four years for sexually abusing a teenage girl.

Alan Holley abused the girl over a period of months in 2009 when she was 14, in Basingstoke.

The 52-year-old had sex with the girl several times and made her feel uncomfortable by holding her hand in public, Winchester Crown Court heard.

Holley, of May Place, Basingstoke, appeared in the dock for sentence having admitted one count of sexual activity with a child.

Simon Edwards, prosecuting, said the count covered multiple occasions of sexual abuse against the girl, who was described as vulnerable.

The matter came to the attention of the police in June last year, when officers went around to the house where the girl lived and spoke to her concerned mother.

The court heard the victim detailed the abuse the next day in a video-taped interview with specialist officers.

Mr Edwards said Holley admitted to the abuse when arrested, and later pleaded guilty to the charge at a plea and case management hearing earlier this year.

Richard Onslow, defending, said the greatest mitigation he could offer was the early guilty plea.

He told Judge Jane Miller: “He is not a man in good health. Your honour will have noted that he’s a vulnerable individual, and to that extent his time in prison may well be worse than those that are more robust.”

Judge Miller said that while Holley had an “extremely low IQ of 65”, the aggravating features were the vulnerability of the victim and that the abuse had been “committed on a number of occasions over a period of some months”.

She jailed Holley for four years, made him subject to a sexual offences prevention order until further notice, and ordered him to sign on to the sexual offenders register for life.