PAEDOPHILE Nigel King has been jailed for nine months after sexually abusing a girl aged just seven.

King, 44, used the chance of baby-sitting for the child in the mid-1990s to systematically carry out the attacks on her, Swindon Crown Court heard.

King, of Thames Avenue, pleaded guilty to two indecent assaults and four counts of gross indecency between 1993 and 1995 when the girl was seven and eight. Judge John McNaught told him: "Offences like this cause such dismay and disgust to people who hear about them and people affected by them that there has got to be a prison sentence."

Imposing the nine month term, the judge ordered that King have an extended licence so that he will be supervised for a further two years and nine months.

After the sentencing the girl's mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "I wanted him to be put away for three or four years, not months. All these years he has put us through hell. We are still going through hell."

Prosecuting, David Martin said King carried out the attacks on the child when she came to stay at his home. He said: "Under the excuse of playing games he would touch her. He would place a hand under her clothing."

King also urged the girl to perform improper acts on him, the court heard. He would tell her his children would be without a father if she told anyone about what was happening and he also gave her money to buy presents for her mother. Mr Martin said the victim stayed with King less and less and confided in a friend two and a half years ago.

He said more recently she told her boyfriend's mother about what had happened and then went to the police to make a complaint.

When King was first questioned by police he denied all knowledge of the offences but in a second interview he acknowledged them.

"He was disgusted by his own conduct and realised other lives were ruined," he told the court.

Mr Martin said as a result of the abuses the teenager was wary of a lot of men. The girl's mother said that she now realised why her relationship with her daughter had suffered for many years.

In mitigation Jason Taylor, urging the judge to pass a probation order, said: "It is a recognition that what he has done passes the custody threshold but it is a direct alternative to that."

He said King had shown real remorse and was motivated at present to address his offending behaviour.