California Clash of Clans teen sex groomer jailed

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David TellesImage source, Devon and Cornwall Police
Image caption,
David Telles from California was jailed for abducting a Cornish teenager

A Californian man has been jailed for six years for abducting a teenage girl from Cornwall who he groomed online.

David Telles, 38, of Trenton Circle, Pleasanton, California, flew to Britain and took the 14-year-old to two hotels, Exeter Crown Court heard.

He admitted sexual grooming, abduction of a child, sexual activity with a child and engaging in a sexual act in the presence of a child.

Telles seduced the girl through the cult online game Clash of Clans.

The court heard Telles flew from California to Heathrow on 14 June and drove to Cornwall in a hire car.

He picked the girl up after she climbed out of her bedroom window in the middle of the night, taking clothes and her passport.

Telles stayed with her at the White Hart Hotel in Launceston and a hotel in Exeter before her family and the police tracked the couple down days later on 18 June.

'Groomed'

The court heard Telles and the girl engaged in various sexual activities which stopped just short of full intercourse.

Sentencing him, Judge Francis Gilbert QC, said: "The girl wanted to be with you because you had groomed her to the point where she was not going to object to being abducted."

Judge Gilbert said the victim was wearing an engagement ring given to her by Telles when police found her.

Telles initially lied about his age and knew the girl was only 14 years old, the court was told

Joss Ticehurst, defending, said in mitigation Telles was likely to face more charges when deported back to the US at the end of his sentence.

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