A photographer who began raping a girl when she was eight years old was today locked up for 13 years.

Trevor Payne, 67, of Fry Close, Collier Row, started raping the girl in the 60s and only stopped when she became sexually mature. He continued sexually assaulting her until she was 14.

He began the attacks when he was 14 and the “apple” of his parents’ eyes. He stopped five years later when his mother died following a series of heart attacks.

Judge David Radford said the abuse left the victim “frightened and withdrawn” as he sentenced Payne at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

“The offence of rape continued until shortly before [the victim’s] 12th birthday when it became apparent she was menstruating,” he said.

“You digitally penetrated her when she was menstruating. It seems that your sex education, such as it was, encompassed that to continue to penetrate her vaginally with your penis as you had been, certainly unprotected, you knew that you ran the risk of pregnancy.”

His victim has been unable to start a family because of the attacks.

“The main effect has been she has not enjoyed any sexual life in any sense that could be regarded as normal.,” the judge added.

Payne did not believe her when she said she was having her period so he digitally examined her and “saw the blood on his hands”, prosecutor Nicholas Wells said.

He would threaten her with violence and manipulate her in order to stop her from reporting the attacks.

Payne came from a “respectable” household but did not receive sexual education from his “hardworking” father, who was employed by Dagenham Ford.

He did not become sexually aware until he read about sex in a book which “disgusted” his mother when she unearthed it.

Payne, dressed in a black suit, shook his head as the judge read out the sentence for the three counts of rape and three of sexual assault. He was found guilty by a jury on July 15.

Eight supporters including his wife accompanied him. His wife gave evidence supporting him in “limited English”.

He will be put on the sex offenders register.

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