A CARETAKER at York Minster School was today starting a five-year jail sentence for the perverted years-long sexual abuse of a young girl.

Barrie Ellis Ashton, 63, forced his child victim to relive the ordeal that lasted half her lifetime, York Crown Court heard. He watched her break down in tears as she had to tell strangers the intimate details of exactly what he had done to her and what he had made her do to him. Then he falsely accused her father, a friend for a quarter of a century, of getting her to tell lies to avoid paying a £600 debt.

Yet he was so convinced he would be convicted and jailed, he had "put his affairs in order" before the trial began.

The schoolgirl gave evidence on video and through a TV link.

"That young girl was systematically abused for about most of her life although she is still only 14, certainly from the age of six and seven until she was 12," said Judge Peter Charlesworth.

"You are guilty of a gross breach of trust to that family and (her father) in particular had to face the suggestion by you that he deliberately engineered false accusations for a pound or two of money.

"The way the case was conducted .. destroyed any possible mitigation. I saw and heard that girl give evidence, compelling evidence, moving evidence, truthful evidence and saw her distress and upset.

"You have caused her enormous suffering, apart from that caused to her family."

Ashton, of Starkey Crescent, Tang Hall, York, denied 11 charges of indecent assault. The jury took just over 90 minutes to convict him unanimously of eight charges.

Because the girl was unsure exactly when the abuse began, the judge had earlier ordered them to acquit him on three which alleged he abused the child between the ages of four and six. Ashton was jailed for five years and will be on the sex offenders register for life.

picture: Barrie Ashton is led away in handcuffs after being sentenced to five years in prison