A MAN from Kendal has received a long prison sentence for the repeated rape of a schoolgirl.

Carlisle Crown Court heard that Jason Speakman, 32, sexually abused the girl for several years until she plucked up the courage to tell a friend.

Speakman was jailed for 16 years and will be on licence for an extra six years after that. He was also put on the sex offenders register for life.

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He had pleaded guilty to a total of seven charges of rape, some of them just specimens of his continued course of conduct.

The court heard that Speakman "terrorised" the girl into keeping quiet about what he was doing, and told her that if she told anyone he would kill her.

Judge Peter Hughes QC said it was difficult to imagine a worse case of a man sexually exploiting a vulnerable child.