AN 84-year-old man was jailed for five years for sexually assaulting a young girl.

John Lucas denied committing five indecent assaults and one count of indecency with a child between January 1994 and August 1998.

But the jury at Oxford Crown Court found Lucas guilty of two of the indecent assaults on the girl when she was aged between six and nine.

Lucas, of Weycroft, Didcot, was acquitted of the indecency with a child and three other indecent assaults.

In a statement read to the court, last Monday, the girl - now grown up - said she still worries about bumping into Lucas accidentally in the street.

She added: "I don't have much confidence or trust.

"I find it hard to let people into my life, I find it hard to go out and enjoy my life.

"It made me, and still makes me, feel disgusted, sad and worried."

David Bright, defending, appealed for the court to suspend any prison sentence it was going to impose on Lucas because of the impact it would have on his wife and children.

He said: "It is typical of John Lucas' attitude to life and family that his concerns from the outset, and repeated throughout the trial, is not for himself but for others.

"This will be the first time in their 60-year marriage they will be apart if he is sent to prison."

But Judge Peter Ross said while he could wield the "sword of mercy" to hand Lucas a shorter prison sentence, he could not spare him jail completely.

He added: "You were rightly described as a man of exemplary character - your devotion as a family man was clear to all of us.

"What you did on those two nights was a terrible thing.

"More than anything else I was hoping that this morning you might bring yourself to admit to the court, but more importantly, to your immediate family, that you have indeed perpetrated these two sexual assaults.

"You have not done so.

"My public duty requires me to impose an immediate sentence of imprisonment."