Paul Yeadon 60

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A 51-YEAR-OLD engineer has been jailed for 15 years for a catalogue of "disgusting and terrible" sexual abuse against a young girl.

Paul Yeadon preyed on the child when she was aged between six and 14, raping and assaulting her "hundreds and hundreds of times," Bradford Crown Court heard.

Yeadon was a long distance lorry driver living in Great Horton, Bradford, when he targeted the little girl almost 20 years ago, telling her it was "their secret".

His victim, now a woman in her 30s, told the court he abused her at least once a week for eight years.

He sexually assaulted her after they watched TV together "as a treat" and molested her in the cab of his lorry, prosecutor Adrian Dent said.

Yeadon pleaded guilty in November to five offences of indecently assaulting the girl when she was six or seven years old.

But he continued to deny raping and abusing her over a long period of time.

Yesterday, a jury convicted him of a further 13 charges, including three sample counts of rape, three offences of indecency with a child, six of indecent assault and one of attempted indecent assault.

Burly and bespectacled Yeadon, now of Beancroft Road, Castleford, West Yorkshire, stood impassively in the dock as the guilty verdicts were returned.

During the trial, the court heard that the girl confided to her mother what Yeadon had done to her when she was aged 14.

But although her mother was horrified and disgusted, he got away with it for decades because the teenager was about to take exams and could not face becoming caught up in a police investigation.

In 2013, she plucked up the courage to tell the police what Yeadon had done to her.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, the woman told how she struggled to come to terms with the abuse.

Stress about the case had recently ended a recent relationship she was in and she suffered broken sleep and anxiety.

The woman wept in court as Mr Dent disclosed that she had flashbacks and was seriously unwell.

"I hope this brings closure and I can move on with my life," she said.

Yeadon's barrister, David McGonigal, said Yeadon was in his 20s when he abused the girl and had since led a blameless life.

He had always worked, giving up his job as an engineer only when the trial approached.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told Yeadon: "This was a catalogue of sexual offending against a young girl, going back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"Your victim was abused from when she was aged about six. You persuaded her and drove her into a position where she could not resist you."

The judge added: "This was disgusting and terrible abuse. There are hundreds and hundreds of offences spanning a considerable period of time."