IT was not so much bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover but lovebirds. It was at the famous landmark that a romance between a London labourer and a teenager blossomed - and put him in the dock.

But he was spared a prison sentence after the 15-year-old told a judge they planned to marry in three months and she would then resume her studies. 

Having met by chance, they began writing to each other and frequently stayed with each other's family. Their feelings grew to the point where she wrote to her parents she no longer wanted to live at home, and largely at her instigation, they moved from London to Andover to live together in a shed.

But days later he made a startling discovery - the girl with whom he had been cohabiting was underage and not 16 as he believed. It so much played on his conscience he reported himself to the local police, who, instead of giving him a formal warning, chose to charge him with indecent assault.

"A technical offence," defence lawyer Michael Selfe submitted when he appeared at Winchester Crown Court in 1974.

After hearing of his background, Judge Starforth Hill QC directed the girl to be brought before him and asked her what she was doing.

She replied: "I am still at grammar school. I am getting married to him next February when I will be 16. I shall be staying on school because I am taking seven 0'Levels next year."

The judge paused for a few moments before asking: "Are you sure you want to get married?"

She responded: "Yes, I have my mother's consent."  

Hill remarked: "From what I have heard, this is a relationship which is going to continue. Under these circumstances, it would be quite wrong that they should be punished for this offence."

Giving the labourer an absolute discharge, he added: "The order of this court is one that will allow you to forget this unhappy incident in your life, one which will allow you to get married to this beautiful girl."

In a separate case, a judge advised a 17-year-old, whose pregnant girlfriend he hoped to marry, to consider having the baby adopted, as many couples wished to do.

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Judge Jonathon Soper told the teenager to speak to her about the possibility: "It may be easier for the two of you to build up a proper and sensible life together without a child at the very start, beginning to burden your start."

The youth, who was living in a probation hostel, had admitted three charges of having unlawful sex with the 15-year-old. 

Prosecuting and defence barristers told the judge, who imposed a 12-month conditional discharge, they had known each other for some time and there was real love and affection between them.

The court heard she was living in a mother and baby hostel.