A PROFESSIONAL darts player has been jailed for 16 years for the rape and indecent assault of a schoolgirl.

Judge George Moorhouse said Tony “The Viper” Eccles had “systematically” abused a vulnerable girl.

Eccles, 44, of Northgate, Hartlepool, was found guilty after a two-week trial of five charges of rape and five of indecent assault.

The court heard how the abuse started when the girl was 11 and lasted until she was 16.

The assaults escalated from sexual touching to rape, with one assault taking place in bushes.

The victim revealed how Eccles would give her CDs and cigarettes - and threatened that she would go to the "dirty girls' school" if she told anyone about the abuse.

Passing sentence, Judge George Moorhouse said: “This was systematic, serious abuse over a number of years.

“It has clearly had an adverse affect on the victim – psychological scars that she will have with her for the rest of her life.”

At the start of the hearing at Teesside Crown Court on Thursday (June 26), Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, told the judge that supporters of the defendant had threatened the victim with violence on-line and said they would reveal her identity, which is protected by law.

Mr Dodds said: “Police are aware of these offences and I would advise those responsible to desist from such activity.”

Jim Withyman, mitigating, said his client was a skilled and well-regarded darts player.

He said: “Essentially these offences have come to lead this defendant to be estranged from his family.

“He has been prescribed anti-depressants and he has been living alone waiting for the result of this trial.”

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Constable Caroline Mead, from Cleveland Police, said she hoped the conviction would encourage other victims of abuse to come forward.

She added: “I am delighted with the sentence passed today – this man systematically abused a child from the age of 11 until she was 16 and I hope this sends out a message to anyone who has carried out such abuse that we will catch up with you and you can look forward to a lengthy custodial sentence.”

Eccles, who previously lived in Middlesbrough’s South Bank, reached the quarter finals of the British Darts Organisation world championships earlier this year, only to announce he was then retiring.

He has won more than a dozen major tournaments in the sport.