A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed for more than a decade after a series of vile attacks on a child in the 90s.

Allan Hemming, of Chester Street, Oxford, appeared in the dock of Oxford Crown Court in a grey jumper on Tuesday morning.

The 74-year-old had been convicted of three counts of indecent assault, indecency with a child and attempted rape of a child under the age of 13 on January 12.

At his sentencing, a statement from his victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was read out to court by prosecutor Ian Hope who said she felt as if she had been ‘completely deprived of being an innocent child’.

She now suffers with anxiety and feel like ‘everybody looking at her thinks something is wrong with her’.

But, she said, ‘for the first time in a long time’ she slept ‘properly through the night’ knowing justice had been done.

In mitigation his defence counsel Gareth James said he had no previous convictions and was in his late-40s when these offences took place.

Sentencing Judge Maria Lamb said he had been to the victim’s house as a friend of her parents and played ‘hide-and-seek’ with her away from everybody else.

Oxford Mail: Oxford Crown Court Oxford Crown Court

She said: “She was between four and nine-years-old and you, a man in his late 40s.

“She was so young that it wasn’t until she had a sex education lesson at school that she realised something was wrong.

“Nobody thought to query the game of hide and seek you played with her.

“What you did made her uncomfortable and frightened. You told her she would be in trouble if she cried.”

She said that his attacks culminated in attempted rape and had it not been for physical injuries he ‘would have achieved’ rape.

She said: “The fact that you had not pressed on, that you realised you risked damaging her and that could not be concealed.

“I am quite clear in reading what I have read and heard that she feels like something is wrong with her.”

She said there had been some ‘aggravating factors’ when she was considering how long he would spend in prison, like him telling her not to tell anybody.

He was sentenced to 11 years in prison with another year on licence.

He will need to spend five and a half years in prison before he is considered for parole and will be made subject of a sexual offender protection order for the rest of his life.