A bus driver who pestered a 13-year-old girl for her cell phone number has been jailed for six months.

Xavier Douglas repeatedly asked his young passenger to give him her cell number.

The 53-year-old approached the victim on a bus departing from St George’s in September 2012

And he then got off the bus behind her and continued to ask for her cell number.

Prosecutor Victoria Greening told the court: “The victim was concerned enough for her safety to take a different route home than normal.

“She waited before the bus driver had gone so he did not see where she lived.

“A child should not have to be concerned about bus drivers trying to take advantage of them and their innocence.

“It is only fortunate that the young girl in this case was intelligent enough not to provide him with her number.”

Douglas was convicted of intruding upon the privacy of a young girl after trial, having denied the charge.

Ms Greening added: “The defendant did not plead guilty but put the victim through the ordeal of testifying herself.”

In imposing a six-month prison sentence Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo also imposed a period of 12 months probation to follow Douglas’s release from prison.

He said: “All indications are that you show no remorse for the conviction or for the alarm or intrusion on this young girl.

“The nature of your intrusion was at the lower end of the spectrum, but nonetheless it was inappropriate and unexpected for an operator of public transport.”

The six-month sentence imposed last week will run consecutively to a six-year jail term imposed on Douglas earlier this year for a dishonesty offence at the Supreme Court.

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