A sick Sandwich pensioner sat in a crown court dock with his head bowed as the devastating effects his sex crimes had on his innocent victim were revealed.

Pervert Robin Cheesewright, who is now 80, sexually abused a young girl more than 30 years ago - and believed he had got away with it.

But when his victim had the courage to speak out about her ordeal, a jury convicted Cheesewright, of St Barts Road, of five charges of rape and sexual assault.

As he was led away to begin a 14-year jail sentence, he looked across to where the woman sat in the public gallery.

His courageous victim had attended the sentencing hearing at Canterbury Crown Court – and wept as details of her blighted life were outlined.

The woman told the court in a statement how she was left feeling “unclean and dirty” after the attacks.

"The attacks at your hands have blighted her life and continue to dominate her thoughts and behaviour..." - Judge Simon James

She revealed how, in adult life, she had suffered bouts of depression and said without medication “I can’t function”.

The victim also revealed she had battled suicidal feelings and had been “binge drinking” to blot out the memory of the awful attacks.

She pleaded with the judge: “I need justice and I hope there are never ever anymore victims.”

Nina Ellin, defending, said Cheesewright, who had denied the offences, now suffered a serious lung disease which affects his breathing and needs an inhaler.

“In the end it is an illness which will eventually kill him,” she added.

Judge Simon James told him: “You are now over 80 and in poor health.

“But the fact is that you have been able to live virtually the whole of your adult life without having to face up to the consequences and stigma which, quite rightly, accompany these sorts of offences.

“While you carried on your life with a veneer of respectability, your victim has struggled to come to terms with what happened all those years ago.

“It is clear from her Victim Impact Statement that the attacks at your hands have blighted her life and continue to dominate her thoughts and behaviour.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Martin Williams said: "Cheesewright carried out many years of monstrous sexual abuse on a victim who was scared into silence from the beginning and too young to fight back at the time it happened.

"I commend the bravery of the victim in coming forward and I hope the sentence given to Cheesewright should demonstrate that it is never too late to report incidents of child abuse."

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