A paedophile who faked a birth certificate to obtain a school place as a pupil has admitted that he had abducted a 13-year-old girl and engaged in sexual activity with her.

James Chester, 22, tricked the family of his victim as well as a school in Portsmouth that he was a Year 10 schoolboy.

When the girl disappeared on August 5 last year, her family initially thought she had run away with her boyfriend of the same age.

It was not until the couple were found two days later, in Northern Ireland - and Chester was then arrested and charged with abduction and having sex with a minor - that they discovered the truth.

“I hope he gets locked away for a long time," the girl's father told the Portsmouth News.

“What he has done to my daughter and our family is unforgivable. She’s only a young girl. We welcomed him into our family and we were extremely nice to him.

“All the time we thought he was someone else. We trusted him and he wasn’t anything he said he was.”

After pleading guilty to the two offences, Chester was remanded in custody at Portsmouth Crown Court yesterday. Judge Graham White ordered two psychiatric reports to be prepared on him, and he will be sentenced on September 9.

The court had heard that Chester used a fake birth certificate and a letter of support to become a pupil at St Edmund’s Catholic School in Arundel Street, Portsmouth, in September 2005, when he was 19 years old.

He posed as a Year 10 pupil for three weeks, before staff became aware of his true age and he was reported to the police. His victim was not a pupil at this school.

A year later, Mr Chester tried to join the City of Portsmouth Boys School, but was rejected after background checks were discovered.

Acting sergeant Liam Davies, of Hampshire police, said: “The two offences to which Chester pleaded guilty are of a very serious nature.

“The result of his actions has no doubt had a damaging effect on all of the parties involved.

“At least with this early plea, the family will not have to go through any further stress than what they have already endured.”

The girl's family are furious that Chester deceived them, and their 12-year-old son - with whom he had played computer games and gone to the park - had no idea that he was a 22-year-old man.

“He seemed like a very genuine, very young for his age, boy,” the victim’s mother told ITV News. “Just like any of my son’s other friends.

“Very immature, not nasty, very kind and very nice. We felt sorry for him because he said he’d had quite a bad home life.

“Very much a schoolboy like any other, he came round in his school uniform - and you don’t interview people, don’t ask for blood tests and DNA, do you?”

The couple also said their daughter was trying to put the experience behind her but they worried she would have flashbacks.

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