‘Remorseless' paedophile abused girl while she was sat on his knee and told her it was their 'secret'

A ‘remorseless’ paedophile has been jailed after grooming a girl from the age of 6 and sexually assaulting her over a number of years. Gary Mottershead, 55, was convicted of rape, sexual assault and sexual activity with a child following a trial.

His offending came to light after the girl disclosed to her school teacher about Mottershead's predatory behaviour.

Minshull Street Crown Court heard that from a young age, Mottershead gave the girl ‘preferential treatment’ in what was described as ‘systematic grooming’. He first began sexually abusing her when she was six-years-old whilst she sat on his knee.

“This would happen, sometimes when she was asleep, until he would be called away,” prosecutor Alexandra Sutton said. “This continued day after day until she was 14.”

When she was between eight and 11, he would come into her bedroom and molest her before performing a sex act upon her, it was said.

In Blackpool, he went onto rape her. “He told her it was a secret between them, he convinced her that they were in a relationship and told her not to tell her mother,” Ms Sutton said.

The girl later said that she ‘just went along with it’ as she thought it was ‘not doing any harm’. It was later discovered by the police that she had written a note when she was 7 which said that they were having ‘an affair’.

As the girl became more aware that what he was doing was wrong and that what was happening was unacceptable, she would ‘make excuses’. She continued to ‘keep it a secret’ until years later, when she told a teacher of what was going on following his conviction for historic sex offences.

Mottershead, of Manchester, denied the offences, a stance he maintained at trial, but jurors ‘saw through his lies’ and found him guilty.

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