A MAN was jailed yesterday for ten years for raping an eight-year-old girl.
Derek Smith, 32, of Gray Road, Hendon in Sunderland, was convicted at Teesside Crown Court of three charges of raping the girl at three addresses in Hartlepool when she was aged between eight and 12.
He was also found guilty of committing indecency with another girl, aged nine, in 1991.
Peter Kilgour, defending, said that Smith, who lived in Hartlepool at the time of the offences, denied he was guilty.
Judge David Bryant told Smith: "The rape of a child is one of the gravest crimes which these courts have to deal with. A substantial prison sentence is inevitable."
Smith was jailed for ten years for the rapes, with another three years concurrently for indecency.
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