HAMPSHIRE MILKMAN ESCAPES JAIL AFTER ELOPING WITH TEEN
A HAMPSHIRE milkman has narrowly escaped a jail term after eloping to the New Forest with a 14-year-old girl.Three Appeal Court judges refused to send him to prison - despite saying he should have been jailed in August for at least 12 months.
Anthony Keegan, 32, and his teenage lover fled in his milk van.
But the twice-married father of two was caught the next day when police found the couple sheltering in a New Forest car park.
Keegan was arrested and appeared at Winchester Crown Court three months ago.
He was given a 100-hour community service order after admitting four offences of unlawful sexual intercourse and one of indecent assault.
Lawyers for the Attorney General challenged the sentence as inadequate and yesterday asked the Appeal Court to send Keegan to prison.
Lord Justice Kennedy, sitting with Mr Justice Longmore and Mr Justice Ouseley, accepted that the sentence passed in Winchester in August was 'unduly lenient'.
He said: 'We are satisfied that a proper sentence at the time would have been a period of imprisonment of at least 12 months.' But he refused to send Keegan to prison, saying he had already served 21 days on remand.
The fact he had already been sentenced, and was now facing sentence for a second time also had to be taken into account, he said.
Keegan, from Andover, met the girl just before her 14th birthday.
She was a virgin, but the pair soon began 'what was plainly a consensual sexual relationship,' said Lord Justice Kennedy.
Pressure was exerted on the girl to stop seeing Keegan, but in June this year they agreed to run away together, added the judge.
They were found by police the next day.
Lord Justice Kennedy said Keegan had shown no remorse.
'He still continued in his desire to sustain a relationship with the girl, which obviously leads to the possibility of offending in the future.'
