A MAN who befriended a 12-year-old girl on Facebook, before meeting her in Bolton and having sex with her in woodland, has had his suspended sentence quashed.
Junaid Musa Bhuta, aged 19, was given a six-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, after he admitted the rape of a child under 13, at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court in May last year.
Bhuta was aged 18 and the girl, from Salford, was aged 12, when the incident happened. Lawyers for Bhuta, of Manchester Road, Preston, claimed the sentence was too harsh because he did not realise the girl was so young.
Three senior judges at the appeal court in London agreed and quashed the suspended sentence, replacing it with a 12 month conditional discharge. Bhuta and the girl became friends on Facebook last January before meeting in Bolton town centre in February and again in March.
They caught the train to Preston, where Bhuta and the girl had sex in woodland.
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