A GAS worker who indecently assaulted a teenage girl in his caravan is behind bars after she reported the abuse on the internet.

The victim - now a married mother - kept her ordeal a secret for more than two decades until plucking up the courage last year to tell.

She had been to a meeting about safeguarding children and went on a website where she saw "do you know anyone who could be at risk?".

The woman - who revealed her past - was visited by police and she detailed the abuse she was subjected to by Paul Marven.

He had groomed the then-schoolgirl with friendship, cigarettes and alcopops before the sexual conduct took place, a court heard.

Marven, now 57, lived in a caravan park near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, at the time and worked for the gas board in Darlington.

He started a new life in Cornwall thinking his sordid secret would never emerge, but justice has finally caught up with him.

Defence barrister Tom Mitchell said Marven's life had been "crushed" and his family were shocked to learn of his perverted past.

He denied anything inappropriate happened and faced a trial, but was convicted by a jury at Teesside Crown Court earlier this month.

He returned to court on Friday to be sentenced for six charges of indecent assault, and was jailed for six years and three months.

Judge Howard Crowson told Marven his conduct was "controlling and humiliating" and added: "You befriended her for your own purposes.

"Your behaviour towards her was a subtle form of grooming. You played on her friendship and naivety, then sexually assaulted her."

Mr Mitchell opposed the granting of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, saying it was an isolated case and nothing has happened since.

He told the court that an appropriate sentence under recently-issued guidance would fall in what he called "the middle bracket".

He said a "rogues gallery" of celebrity sex offenders Stuart Hall, Rolf Harris and Max Clifford had set a mark for historic cases.

"I anticipate Your Honour would not entertain a sentence as low as that which Hall received," he told Judge Crowson. "The low bracket.

"There is also the sentence Clifford received - the upper bracket - but that was multiple victims with long-lasting damage.

"Harris comes mid-way between those two markers and may well start to reflect the gravity of the offending Mr Marven is guilty of.

"He will get the sex offender treatment programme so any risk that's there will be ameliorated by the time he gets out of custody.

"His life is obviously now crushed," added Mr Mitchell, "and he stands before Your Honour in many ways a changed man."

The judge told Marven: "I have regard to the years that have elapsed since the offending and the effect it will have on the family that has known you in the many years since, and it will be inconceivable to them that this has happened at all."