diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/javadoc/JavadocParagraphCheck.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/javadoc/JavadocParagraphCheck.java
index ebf1437c8..48f5fbe1d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/javadoc/JavadocParagraphCheck.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/javadoc/JavadocParagraphCheck.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 package com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.javadoc;
 
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Utils;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.DetailNode;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.JavadocTokenTypes;
 
@@ -256,6 +257,6 @@ public class JavadocParagraphCheck extends AbstractJavadocCheck {
         final DetailNode nextSibling = JavadocUtils.getNextSibling(tag);
         return nextSibling.getType() == JavadocTokenTypes.NEWLINE
                 || nextSibling.getType() == JavadocTokenTypes.EOF
-                || nextSibling.getText().startsWith(" ");
+                || Utils.startsWithChar(nextSibling.getText(), ' ');
     }
 }