A CHILD sex pervert was discovered sharing a seaside boarding house with a schoolgirl after eloping with her.

Andrew Knight ran away with the girl after befriending her mother, Warrington Crown Court was told.

Knight, 27, who had been ordered to sign the sex offenders' register after receiving a caution for molesting a 14-year-old girl, lied to police and social workers, telling them that the girl's mum was his lover.

The girl - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was 15 years old and in local authority care when she ran away to Blackpool with Knight last October.

Knight, of Arndale, Beechwood, Run-corn, was jailed for 12 months after he admitted a charge of child abduction.

He and the girl spent two weeks living in a bed and breakfast hotel at the seaside resort before he was discovered following a tip-off from staff at Blackpool Jobcentre.

The girl was later detained but refused to co-operate with the police investigation.

The court heard that Knight admitted having had a relationship with the girl for three months.

However, he denied there had been any sexual contact between them and they had only 'kissed and cuddled'.

Knight was cautioned by police in 2003 after he was reported for kissing and indecently touching a 14-year-old girl in Runcorn.

He was ordered to sign the sex offenders register but lied to social services staff about his home address.

Judge David Hale told Knight: 'You are on the sex offenders' register for inappropriate conduct with a 14-year-old girl and yet you went on to behave inappropriately with another vulnerable girl.

'She may have instituted this relationship, but you should not have encouraged her because there was potential for her to have suffered great harm.'