A JOHNSTONE man broke down in tears as he was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for bedding a 15-year-old schoolgirl.

Kyle Cummings, 22, sobbed in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court as he was warned he faces being locked up for having sex with the youngster.

The girl, who wore her school uniform while giving evidence, was groomed by Cummings after meeting him through his job at a fairground.

He got her mobile phone number after meeting her at the fair and then began to go on trips with her and invite her to his house.

Cummings was working on the fair in Glasgow, setting up rides for customers to use, along with two of her friends.

She began speaking to Cummings and they “became closer” through social media before meeting up.

The girl told the court: “We were talking and texting over Snapchat. He gave me his number.”

“I was up at the fair a couple of times and another time we went to Glasgow, just me and him and I went to his house a couple of times.”

Their interaction developed and they would regularly text each other, discussing what they were doing.

Then, on October 25 last year, the girl texted Cummings to tell him she was in an English class at school.

She started visiting Cummings at his home in Johnstone’s Cartside Avenue to spend the evenings with him.

The girl told the court she would get the train from Inverclyde to Paisley Gilmour Street station, then a train to Johnstone, and a taxi back to Cummings’ home.

And during a trip to his home on October 27 last year, two days after she told him she was sitting through a school lesson, he had sex with the girl, who has since turned 16.

She explained: “We started to watch TV and then gradually started to do stuff.

“We had sex. We started kissing and then it just leaded to sexual intercourse.

“We finished, then we put our clothes back on and watched TV again.”

Cummings was charged with having consensual sex with the girl on two occasions - October 25 and 27 last year - while she was over the age of 13 but under the age of 16, in breach of Section 28 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009.

He did not give evidence in the case and claimed through his solicitor that he did not know she was only 15.

As he asked Sheriff Susan Sinclair to acquit Cummings, defence lawyer Gordon Ritchie said: “You could be studying English at school and be 16, 17 or 18, so that [text about her being in English] doesn’t take us anywhere.

“She said in evidence she told him she was only 15 in front of a female friend.

“If she is telling us the truth it would be a great oversight for the Crown [prosecutors] not to call them [the friend] as a witness to corroborate that she told him she was only 15.

“By looking at her I couldn’t tell if she was 15, 16, 17 or 18.”

But Sheriff Sinclair rejected the lawyer’s invitation and found Cummings guilty of sleeping with the girl on October 27 last year.

As she did so, she said: “You and she had consensual, but underage, full sexual intercourse.

“You will be convicted of this.

“I’m going to call for a report in this case.

“I do need it for particular disposals.”

Cummings sobbed uncontrollably at the verdict and the news that he has been placed of the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Sentence was deferred until next month.