A Salvation Army member has been found guilty of sexual activity with a teenage girl.

Carl Shelton, a married 44-year-old, of Thong Lane, Gravesend, taught the girl about sex before having full intercourse with her more than a dozen times.

Shelton denied the allegations but on Tuesday a jury convicted him of two charges of indecent assault, two of sexual activity with a child and one of indecency with a child. He was acquitted of two indecent assault charges following a week-long trial at Maidstone Crown Court.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC adjourned sentence for reports until the week of April 28 and warned "the outcome will inevitably be a long prison sentence".

The jury had heard how Shelton would engage the girl in sexual activity either at his Gravesend home or in his car in secluded places.

He was born in Gravesend and attended St George’s Church of England School. He left with 11 CSE passes and after obtaining a diploma worked with computers.

He said he was fifth generation Salvation Army and played the cornet in the band. He, his father and brother all taught others musical instruments.

Miss Knight said Shelton was a great comfort to the girl when she broke up with her boyfriend.

But he sent her an explicit text message, asking her if she wanted to have sex with him, said Miss Knight. "She was shocked but also naively flattered by the attention she was receiving from this older man," she told a jury at Maidstone Crown Court.

She continued: "The idea was planted in her mind."

Miss Knight said it was agreed she would lose her virginity to him and a date was set to have full sexual intercourse. It then happened "a dozen times or more".

The girl later told police Shelton persuaded her to shave her pubic hair and described how he had done the same and also wore thongs.

She eventually resolved that the relationship had to stop. She confided in two friends.

Miss Knight said: "She said the lying had to stop. She found it just too much."

Miss Knight said that when arrested, Shelton was asked to strip and it was revealed his pubic hair was shaved and he was wearing a thong, just as the girl had described.