A DELIVERY driver who subjected a 13-year-old girl to a “chilling and frightening” abduction in Sundridge Park has been jailed.

Pervert Stephen Mackay ambushed the terrified teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in Plaistow Lane last July.

The 48-year-old dragged the girl down a secluded lane by her wrist at around 9am and when she tried to escape he chased her, carrying her back to the undergrowth.

Croydon Crown Court heard today (January 22) Mackay, from Aldershot in Hampshire, abruptly stopped his attack, apologised, and fled.

But the whole incident was captured on CCTV and clearly shows Mackay wearing his work uniform.

In fact, after an appeal on national television, Mackay was shopped to police by a colleague at delivery firm Hi Speed.

He was arrested but denied attacking the girl, instead claiming she had approached him in the lane.

But when he was shown the CCTV footage of the attack he refused to answer any more questions and eventually pleaded guilty to kidnap and kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Croydon Crown Court heard Mackay spoke to the girl at a set of traffic lights on July 14 before later parking his van and approaching her.

The prosecution said he then grabbed her wrist and dragged her down the alley, asking if she had a boyfriend and stating she “was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen".

Sentencing Mackay to five years in prison, with a further two years to be spent on licence, Judge Ruth Downing said the abduction was both “chilling and frightening”.

Mackay's tears

She said: “The short extract from the CCTV footage gives something of a flavour of the experience which was meted out to your victim on that morning.

“I believe it shows something of the purpose you had in mind, which I believe was to do some sexual harm to this girl.

“I have to ask myself, are you a danger to the public and I am in no doubt at all that there is risk.

“I have no doubt that you deliberately followed that young girl.

“It must have been a terrifying experience for her."

Defence lawyers argued Mackay only attacked the girl because he was suffering a breakdown after the death of his son and sister, and the break-up of his 26-year marriage.

Mackay’s current partner was in court today and he exchanged smiles with her across the courtroom.

When the judge said it was possible he might commit the same offence again in the future, a sullen Mackay, dressed in a grey suit, shook his head.

Earlier in the proceedings, as the prosecution detailed the events of July 14, Mackay appeared to be crying. At other points he seemed to be muttering under his breath.

After Mackay was sentenced, the judge praised the “sense and courage” of the victim after she rushed home to tell her family, who in turn contacted police.

Mackay has been placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register indefinitely.