A pervert who made "nasty and manipulative threats of the worst kind" during sexual abuse of a young girl has been jailed for 12 years.

Judge Martin Joy added that Kevin Duffy was utterly lacking in victim empathy and had constantly referred to the victim at his trial in derogatory terms.

"Of even greater concern is he is described as posing a high risk of harm to female children," he said.

Duffy committed the offences more than 10 years ago when he was living in Gravesend and working as a tarmacer.

He denied three offences of indecent assault and four of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, but was convicted.

Prosecutor Jason Cross said the 36-year-old groomed the victim, took her into his confidence and sexually assaulted her.

Duffy, now of Bootle, Merseyside, told the girl she was special. Things progressed and became more sinister, the prosecutor told Maidstone Crown Court.

"The Crown says he progressed the grooming further and treated her like an adult. He was attempting to gain her further trust by making her feel like an adult.

"The Crown says that it was grooming, it was patter. He was flattering her."

Frank Dillon, defending, said Duffy had led a blameless working life for the past decade.

Judge Joy said: "There was a background of coercion. The trial lasted nine days. It involved the girl having to give evidence and revisit all those terrible memories. It has obviously had a huge and devastating impact on her."

Duffy could not complain, he said, if consecutive sentences were imposed.

He was jailed for 12 years for the four offences of sexual intercourse with a girl and six years and nine months concurrent for the indecent assaults.

Duffy was banned from having unsupervised contact with girls under 16 and his name will appear on the sex offenders' register for life.