A PAEDOPHILE who preyed on a young girl was locked up indefinitely after a judge branded him a significant danger to children.

John Harrop will be freed from prison only when officials from the Parole Board consider the 25-year-old is no longer a risk.

A court heard how the monster bribed his victim with money and sweets and ignored her tearful pleas for him to stop the abuse.

He systematically raped the girl over a two-year period and she kept her ordeal a secret from her family until last year.

The girl's parents heard a “piercing scream” coming from her bedroom and found she had been having a nightmare about the abuse.

Prosecutor Aisha Wadoodi told Teesside Crown Court that the youngster was “hysterical and difficult to understand”.

She told her mother and father that Harrop had been abusing her, and he refused to answer police questions when he was arrested.

He later admitted six specimen charges of rape and two of sexual assault and was given a sentence of imprisonment for public protection.

Judge George Moorhouse told Harrop, of Tom Raine Court, Darlington: “I say that because of what's in the probation report.

“I quote 'it is my view that Mr Harrop poses a very high risk of sexual and emotional harm to young, vulnerable males and females.”

Harrop was also banned for life from working with children, put on the sex offenders' register and ordered not to have unsupervised contact with under-16s.

His barrister, Andrew Petterson, told the court that Harrop would suffer an “intense psychological reaction” to being locked up.

Mr Petterson said he was “extremely isolated” and had been in living in fear of revenge attacks following his arrest last November.

The court heard that the girl suffers from night terrors, physical medical problems and does not play out with friends as much.

Judge Moorhouse told the rapist: “One of the aggravating features of these offences is that they were prolonged, on a young girl.

“I appreciate that during your life, you have had your own difficulties, but you have got to remember the impact on this girl and her family.”