A YOUNG girl who was abused by her father told a judge he should sentence him to three years in prison — “the same amount of time he has been doing things to me for”.

In a victim statement read out at Bolton Crown Court the girl explained to Judge Graeme Smith: “I am really glad my dad has pleaded guilty. It means he has told the truth.

“Once he said that he would murder my friends and bash my head in with a big stone from the garden if I said anything.

“I am not scared any more because he is in prison.”

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The court heard that the girl had suffered sexual abuse from her father from the age of seven when he began asking her to perform sex acts on him. But the 54-year-old’s behaviour came to an end when the brave child managed to show her mother what was happening.

The father, who cannot be named in order to protect his daughter’s identity, pleaded guilty to five specimen counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He also admitted one of sexual assault of a child from when he touched her genitals over her clothing.

Richard Vardon, prosecuting, said the girl told police the abuse occurred when her father was drunk.

On the final occasion, she was asleep at 11pm when her father came home and rang the doorbell to be let in.

The girl opened the door and heated up his dinner.

After he had eaten he took her into the living room, removed his tracksuit pants and underpants and asked her to “help” him.

The child had learnt that, when he asked that, he wanted her to touch his private parts.

“She edged back from the defendant and made an excuse to go upstairs,” said Mr Vardon.

The quick thinking schoolgirl asked her mother to come downstairs. “[The mother] stood behind the sofa so the defendant did not see her,” said Mr Vardon, who added that she was then appalled to hear her partner tell their daughter, “go on, go on, touch it.”

“It was then the victim’s mother made herself known. Understandably upset, she screamed at the defendant,” he said.

The father later told police that he had drunk 20 cans of Fosters lager, smoked cannabis and had no recollection of what he had done that night or on previous occasions when he had been drunk.

Martin Pizzey, defending the father, who appeared in court via a video link from Manchester Prison, said: “He cannot come up with an an explanation for his behaviour. He says he thought the world of his daughter, One of the most significant things he said was that she would not lie — if she said these offences took place then he would accept that they did take place. He is ashamed and very sorry.

“He had a circle of friends and family and his life is now devastated and in ruins. He wishes that this had come out earlier and not gone on for so long.”

“He knows, on his release [from prison] there are very few people who are likely to support him.”

The child’s court statement said: “If I was a judge I would send my dad to prison for three years — the same amount of time he has been doing things to me for.”

Jailing her father for six years, Judge Smith praised the girl. “She has shown great courage and maturity in the way she has dealt with this,” he said.

The father was also placed on the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for life.