AN 81-year-old man who repeatedly raped and sexually abused a vulnerable young girl has been jailed for 20 years.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that, given his age and health, Robert Douglas was likely to die in jail.

Douglas, from Eastham, denied the 16 offences against him and Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said that meant the victim had to come to court to relive her ordeal and "was branded a liar".

The girl, who Douglas abused when she was aged between ten to 15, had been promising academically but she went off the rails.

The judge said: "That was the price she had to pay for the abuse at your hands.

"Basically your corrupted her from a very early age and blighted her life from then on."

He said that he had initially put her at ease by apparently showing her kindness.

"It was quite innocent at the start but that was before you began to abuse her.

"That abuse rapidly escalated. You raped her and that happened on multiple occasions."

The victim had given a "harrowing account" in her evidence about the affect of his offending behaviour, he said.

"This skeleton has stayed in your cupboard for decades," added the judge.

During his trial the jury of four women and eight men heard that Douglas began by grooming the victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and she was just ten years old when he first raped her - and for which he gave her a pound coin.

Douglas, who showed no emotion at all during the hearing, had been unanimously convicted today of seven rape offences, six indecent assaults and two of indecency with a child.

He was cleared of one rape offence.

Many of the charges involved incidents happening on more than one occasion.

Wirral Globe:

Robert Douglas has been jailed for 20 years

Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, had told the jury that the offences took place more than 20 years ago when Douglas, a mechanical engineer, lived in Wirral.

He groomed the victim into providing sexual favours to him and gave her money and bought her clothes when she was in her teens.

"Her free will had been overborne by what he had trained her to do.

"It was like training an animal to do tricks: do the trick and the animal received its reward. And so it was with her."

The court heard that her behaviour deteriorated and she began taking alcohol and amphetamine and cannabis and on occasion he rewarded her with amphetamine tablets.

After the offences stopped she called at his home one evening when she knew he was out as he had behaved suspiciously the last time she had called round at his home.

She found a carrier bag behind a chair in his bedroom and it was full of photos of her and her friends all taken when they were young.

The photos of their faces had been stuck on the bodies of 'page three' girls, said Mr Gibson.

He had then put on the images white speech bubbles in which he had written a lewd request and in others he had drawn a rude picture.

She told her boyfriend and an aunt and took the pictures to Bebington police station but when asked if he had sexually abused her she said no.

She did not initially tell her aunt but later broke down saying he had ruined her life and admitted he had raped and abused her.

However she did not tell the police until May 2015.

He was interviewed later that year and again in December 2016 and denied sexually abusing her.

"In a somewhat grudging fashion" accepted that he had placed photos of her on the naked bodies of adult women and written various comments though denied it was for sexual gratification.

Mr Gibson said today that in an impact statement the victim said that his behaviour had affected her life ever since including her relationship with her husband.

She is still on anti-depressants and had self-harmed when younger.

“He robbed me of such great opportunities, education was a great chance - he snatched this away from me.”

Lee Bonner, defending, said that Douglas, who has no previous convictions, suffers from ill health and is in remission from bowel cancer.

"The reality is he may never be released from custody."

The judge imposed an extra year’s licence on Douglas and ordered him the sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.