A MAN was jailed for eight years yesterday after being found guilty of raping a girl under 16.

Nigel Dack, 40, of Princess Royal Park, Scarborough, attacked the girl between October 1999 and September 2000.

Yesterday, at York Crown Court Judge Paul Hoffman told Dack: "The damage you have done cannot be calculated."

Dack, who worked in a Scarborough cafe, had vehemently denied the sex attacks, calling claims made by the girl against him "wicked lies".

But prosecutor David Bradshaw said Dack met the girl after school, and committed the offences.

He said the girl was "very fond" of the accused but he took advantage of the situation and progressed from kissing and cuddling with the youngster sitting on his knee, to intercourse against her will.

Mr Bradshaw said Dack thought he had got away with what he had done by accusing the victim of lying.

Dack told the jury the girl used to ask him to kiss and cuddle her and because that was as far as it went he saw nothing wrong.

He said: "I have never raped her. I never took her clothes off."

Judge Hoffman also ordered Dack to be placed on the sex offenders' register for life.