Pub landlord raped girl, 8, then threatened to kill her if she told anyone

A pub landlord raped an eight-year-old girl and threatened to kill her if she told anyone what had happened to her. Carl Marland, 58, carried out a series of sexual assaults on several young girls he had groomed with expensive gifts and drugs.

The youngest of his four victims was an eight-year-old girl, who Marland sexually assaulted several times. On one occasion, the dad-of-four held a knife to the girl's neck after having raped her.

At Manchester Crown Court yesterday, a judge jailed Marland for 21 years. Marland travelled to Greater Manchester from London, where he ran a pub, to visit the girls and carry out his attacks.

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Prosecutor Vanessa Thomson told the court that Marland groomed his victims by giving them gifts of clothes and money, as well as cannabis and cocaine. He took out a £75 per month iPhone 12 contract for one victim and would drive the girls around in his car, where some of the abuse took place.

After raping the eight-year-old, Marland told the victim he would kill her if she told anyone what he had done to her, the court heard. On another occasion, Marland sexually assaulted the girl before holding a knife to her neck.

Marland told another teenage victim they could 'be together' when she turned 16 and threatened to kill himself if she did not express that she loved him, the court heard. During a shopping trip to the Arndale Centre, he pulled his trousers down in front of the girl.

Marland offered another victim money if she spoke to him on Snapchat and 'kept him busy'. The court heard that he groomed the girl, who was 15 at the time, by offering her cannabis and cocaine and paid her £60 for a photograph of her face