A 24-year-old Suffolk man has been given a two-year community order after pleading guilty to a sexual offence when he was a teenager.

Harry Cooke, of Elms Lane, Wangford, near Beccles, was before Ipswich Crown Court for sentencing on Monday after admitting engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a child.

The offence related to when Cooke was 15 and when his victim was aged 14.

The court heard from prosecutor Lori Tucker the pair had become friends and the victim thought of Cooke as a brother.

Ms Tucker said the girl did not have many friends at the time and enjoyed the defendant’s company and then “he began to send sexual things over Snapchat.”

The court heard the incident happened when he had come to stay over at her house, and she was drifting off to sleep.

He began massaging her neck and then her bottom.

The court heard she initially moved, “shaking it off”, but he then put his hand under her pyjamas and sexually assaulted her. 

The court heard an impact statement from the victim who described how Cooke’s behaviour left her feeling “worthless”.

She said: “For the past ten years I have had to live with this on my mind.

“Harry was aware I didn’t have many friends at the time.

“We became known as a duo as he was someone I trusted.

“A few months into the friendship Harry would write letters and hide them for me to find.

“Harry would express his infatuation and fantasies of me.

“Harry would ask for provocative photos - trying to push boundaries.

“He belittled me and truly made me believe I had no control over my own body and feelings.

“My mental health deteriorated after Harry sexually abused me.

“I felt worthless. I felt angry. I felt confused.”

She added that her little brother had looked up to him but after he became aware of what happened he would isolate himself and “his OCD would flare up so badly he was no longer recognisable as who he was”.

“I can no longer have close friends because I have lost all trust,” she said.

Defence barrister Andrew Thompson spoke in mitigation and suggested it was “a friendship that was seen differently by the two parties.”

He added that it was a very short-lived incident and that “Mr Cooke mistakenly, but we say reasonably, believed his conduct was consensual.”

Mr Thompson told Judge Martyn Levett that he was “looking at a man who quite different from the immature teenager that led up to this incident” and that Cooke was now responsible and “shows every sign of having a successful future.”

Judge Levett gave Cooke a two-year community order, 30 rehabilitation requirement activity days and 150 hours unpaid work to be completed in 12 months.