A teenage girl collapsed sobbing when she learned that a man who used to be her babysitter had been jailed for sex offences, a court was told yesterday,

Kenneth Walker, 68, even used his walking stick to perform indecent acts on girls.

The 19-year-old told her mother, who was reading out a report of the previous day's case: "He has been doing it to me for years."

The disclosure shocked her family and sent police to interview Walker in jail, where he was starting a four-year sentence, Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court.

Walker admitted he regularly assaulted the girl for four years while her mother did an evening course.

Yesterday, Walker, of Brinkburn Road, Darlington, was jailed for 15 months consecutive to last July's sentence, imposed at the same court, after he admitted two indecent assaults and indecency with a child.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life