A Thanet pervert – who brushed off a sex attack on a child as the equivalent to a speeding or shoplifting offence – has been jailed for 13 years.

Pensioner Roy Cleaver had been found guilty of the attempted rape of a seven year old.

As the judge read his victim’s recollections to the sick child abuser, he shook his head and mouthed repeatedly “No”.

The former squaddie, of Rancorn Road, Margate, had been acquitted on two other charges of indecent assault and rape.

But the jury decided that Cleaver, now 65 years old, had partially stripped the child who had been visiting his home and performed a sex act.

“You think it was something more akin to a speeding or shoplifting offence and just a moment of foolishness” - Judge James O'Mahony

John O’Higgins, defending, said the man who had run his own gardening business for many years had been a “grafter” who had worked hard.

But he said that intellectually he was “closer” to someone much younger.

The jury had heard how Cleaver had sexually assaulted the youngster who had gone to his home to play with his child.

Prosecutor Christopher May told how the pervert took advantage of his bewildered victim.

When he was arrested he tried to blame his victim for initiating the sex play – but the judge rejected his account as “utterly ridiculous”.

He later told officers that when he heard about the Jimmy Savile case “he thought something might come out – but claimed he didn’t like young girls in “a sexual way”.

But Judge James O'Mahony told him he had no insight to his offending which he dismissed as “ a one-off stupid mistake”.

“You think it was something more akin to a speeding or shoplifting offence and just a moment of foolishness”.

She ordered he sign the Sex Offender’s Register for life – and was made subject to an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

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