A 38-year-old man from County Down has been granted bail after appearing remotely in Ballymena Magistrates Court charged with two counts of abduction of a child in care and paying for sexual services of a child.
Police charged the man following a report of a rape in the Antrim area on Tuesday, 7th February, 2023.
According to BBC News, Paul Livingstone, of Oakhill Road in Dromore told officers that he had been in a five month consensual relationship with the 16-year-old girl who has been in care since the age of two.
Police described the girl as "vulnerable" and said she alleges that she first said no to sex, before saying yes, and stared she was received money and e-cigarettes from him.
Livingstone's lawyer speaking on behalf of his client said the defendant 'strenuously' denied the charges against him, and said he did not pay for sex but admitted giving the gifts to the teenager.
The report also details that two abduction charges relate to the discovery of the girl in the back of Livingstone's van, and at a hotel in Antrim where staff became suspicious. It is understood he was concerned as a married man that he would be found out cheating.
Livingstone was granted bail and is set to appear in court again on 14 March.
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