A teenager has been cleared of having under age sex in a woodland den after police found texts on his phone which showed he may not have been there.
Lewis Stewart was found not guilty of sexual activity with a child but could still face a jail sentence after he admitted having sex with the girl on six other occasions.
Stewart was aged just 18 when he posed as a homeless person to gain the 15-year-old's sympathy and was allowed to move into her home in South Devon.
He started a sexual relationship under the nose of her mother and even shared the girl's bed, Exeter Crown Court was told.
The police and social workers were already concerned about his interest in young girls and he was subject to a restraining order which should have prevented him having any contact of any sort with girls under 16.
Stewart, now 19, of Third Avenue, Dawlish, was cleared of one count of sexual activity with a child and one count of breaking the restraining order.
He admitted six other offences of sexual activity with a child and one of breaking the restraining order.
Judge Erik Salomonsen remanded him in custody and ordered the probation service to prepare a pre sentence report.
He said:"There have been references in the papers to concerns about safeguarding and this defendant's sexual proclivities. The court needs to know more about him.
"He clearly has an interest in young girls and from the evidence we have seen in this case, some of them had an interest in him. Sentencing will be a difficult exercise."
Miss Ann Midgley, prosecuting, said the final allegation that Stewart had sex with the girl after paying for a taxi to take her to a woodland den in Dawlish is no longer being pursued.
She said his mobile phone had been in the hands of police since his arrest but texts had not been analysed and there were some from an unknown number on the day of the woodland offence which suggested he may have been elsewhere.
She said it was not in the public interest to adjourn the case to allow police to trace the source of the texts because Stewart has already admitted the other offences.
She said these related to a period between March and May last year when Stewart formed a relationship and moved in with the schoolgirl in defiance of the restraining order.
She said:"He met her through mutual friends and told her he was homeless and she agreed to ask her mother if he could move into their home.
"Within a few weeks he began a sexual relationship at a time shortly after her 15th birthday. She gave an account of having intercourse four times and oral sex on two occasions."
She said he had been made subject of the restraining order in 2014 when charges of child abduction were dropped.
He has convictions for 38 previous offences but the only one relevant to this case is one of harassment and two for battery.
The restraining order was made as a result of his contacts with two other under age girls and prohibited any contact with females under the age of 16.
Mr Tom Bradnock, defending, said Stewart had accepted the six charges right away but always disputed the further allegation that he had sex with the girl in woods at Dawlish on Fathers Day in June last year.
He said Stewart and the girl had shared a bed during their relationship with the agreement of her mother.
Before the case folded, the jury heard the prosecution allege Stewart had contacted the girl and sent a taxi to take her to a hideaway in woods behind Dawlish fire station where he had sex with her.
He denied seeing her at all and said he spent the day with his father at home or with friends in other parts of Dawlish.
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