A “monster” who committed sex attacks on a nine-year-old girl has been jailed for 14 years.
Gary Cooper, of Keightley Road, New Parks, Leicester, raped the youngster twice and indecently assaulted her three times over a five-year period, starting in the late 1980s.
During his sentencing at Leicester Crown Court, Judge Jeremy Lea said Cooper had “violated” his victim with no regard for her or her family.
He told Cooper: “These were deliberate, planned and calculated offences.” During his trial, which was held at Nottingham Crown Court in June, Cooper was found guilty – by a majority verdict – of two rapes and three charges of indecent assault on the victim.
He was cleared of a further 21 charges of sex attacks on three other young girls over a period of almost 20 years.
The jury heard that Cooper committed the first assault on the then nine-year-old in the 1980s after he collected the youngster from an event at Leicester Tigers’ Welford Road ground in the city.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court the assault took place at his former home in Thurnby Lodge.
She said: “He tried to kiss me with his mouth open. I kept my mouth shut. I did not know what he was doing. I was scared.” The victim told the court that Cooper, whom she described as a “monster”, raped her for the first time a week after the initial assault.
She said regular assaults continued for the next few years, ranging from inappropriate touching to rape and making her perform a sex act on him.
When she reached her teens, she began to realise that what was happening was not right and stood up to him, she said.
The police were called after the woman admitted to a psychiatrist in 2005 that she had been abused, but she refused to make a statement, as she did not want to go through a court case.
However, the police got back in touch with her after further allegations against Cooper were made by three other girls in September last year.
When Cooper was called to give evidence, he broke down in tears as he denied the charges, telling jurors that he would “never touch a child”.
The jury took almost 13 hours to arrive at its verdicts.
Cooper was found guilty of the five charges by a majority verdict of 10 to two. As well as being jailed, he was put on the sex offenders’ register for life.
