A man loosened a bulb in a night light before sexually assaulting a young girl as she was lying in her bed, a court heard.

After molesting the victim, David Papworth left by the back door and climbed over a fence, borrowing a bike and cycling off.

The 29-year-old father, of Bell Lane, Burham, denied sexual assault but was convicted on what a judge called overwhelming evidence.

Before jailing him for five years, Judge Michael Carroll said: “The one place a child is entitled to feel safe is in their bed. Call me old fashioned. That is what a child will regard as the safest place.”

Maidstone Crown Court heard Papworth had been at the house for a barbecue and drank excessively.

The next day, the girl told her parents she had been touched her under her night clothes.

Her father checked her room and saw the night light was off as the bulb had been loosened.

Papworth later told police he had been feeling unwell and wanted to go home.

The victim’s father said in a statement read out in court he was devastated by what happened.

Andrew Baughan, defending, said it was a single incident and Papworth, who has three children, had not committed any previous sexual offences.

Judge Carroll said Papworth’s conduct after committing the offence had emphasised his guilt by hurriedly leaving the house.

He said of the victim: “She was particularly vulnerable due to her extreme youth.”

The judge added there was a degree of planning. “I struggle to find any mitigating factors in your case,” he said.

Judge Carroll said he wanted it recorded that Papworth, who was handcuffed in the dock because of a threat to escape when convicted, glared at the victim’s family as he was taken to the cells.

A restraining order was made, banning contact with the family. Papworth’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

A sexual offences prevention order was also imposed and he will be barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.