Thomas Nulty, 64, raped the child in the early 1970s in Prescot, Merseyside, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

The victim revealed her ordeal to police in April 2018.

Nulty denied rape but was convicted following a trial, and admitted five offences involving the sexual abuse of two other children. He has been jailed for seven years and six months.

Judge Gary Woodhall said he had taken into account that Nulty had been 16 years old at the time and "did not have family nurturing to understand boundaries and behaviour".

Nulty, now of Huddersfield Road, Oldham, had been brought up in two care homes where he was abused as a young boy, the court heard.

'Little empathy'

The court heard he raped the girl in her own bed while babysitting her. He threatened her not to tell anyone or her mother would die.

Judge Woodhall, who ordered him to sign on the sex offenders register for life, said Nulty "had shown little empathy or remorse", adding: "You admitted having been sexually aroused by the power it gave you."

He said the rape victim spoke of how his behaviour had "ruined her life" and she had needed help for mental health issues.

In an impact statement she told how when she was young she had tried to kill herself and had always felt "isolated and alone".

She described herself as always being in a state of anxiety.

Nulty was jailed for five years in 1995 for indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl and a young woman.

The judge pointed out that while in jail he had undergone a sex offender's treatment programme and had not re-offended.