A former Exeter University cleaning manager lured a 15-year-old girl to a hotel after grooming her for sex.
Saffet Temizbas befriended the girl and had given her lifts home from school before inviting her to spend a night with him at the £69-a-night Holiday Inn.
They met up but did not have full sex and he took her home instead of going through with the plan to sleep together.
He also sent her texts and Facebook messages which showed a sexual interest and which Exeter Crown Court was told amounted to grooming.
Saffet Temizbas, 43, formerly of Stuart Road, Exeter, but now living on the Isle of Wight, admitted sexual activity with a child and meeting a child after sexual grooming.
He was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years, and made subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order which restricts his contacts with children.
Judge Francis Gilbert QC told him: "You took this girl to a hotel with the intention of having sexual intercourse with her but in fact it did not happen. I can suspend the sentence because you backed off from it."
Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said Temizbas befriended the 15-year-old schoolgirl and her family and sent texts and online messages to her.
He said: "He started to pick her up from school and take her home and sometimes went out to buy food for the family from a kebab shop. On one of these journeys he touched and kissed the girl.
"He booked a room in the Holiday Inn Express in Exeter for £68.99 with his credit card and she spent some time with him there. There was sexual activity but not intercourse and he took her home."
Richard Bendall, defending, said Temizbas had lost his job as a cleaning manager at Exeter University as a result of the police investigation and has not been able to work since because of uncertainty about the case.
He said: "He has expressed remorse and shame and will never get involved in anything like this again."
