A DEPRAVED paedophile who sexually abused a young child nearly 40 years ago has been jailed.

John Cooper appeared at Oxford Crown Court on Friday to face justice decades after he abused a child in Oxfordshire in the early 1980s.

The 65-year-old of Causeway, Banbury had admitted two counts of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child.

At his sentencing he showed little emotion before waving to supporters in the public gallery as he was led out the dock to begin his jail term.

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Outlining the case at the hearing prosecutor Steven Talbot-Hadley said that Cooper had performed a number of sex acts on his child victim in Oxfordshire in the early 1980s.

In one instance of abuse the child - who cannot be named for legal reasons - ran into a toilet and locked herself inside until Cooper left.

After the sexual abuse had ended Cooper never saw his victim again and he was interviewed by police last year once allegations had come to light.

He later went on to admit the offences but his defence barrister said his client claimed he ‘could not recollect’ the precise circumstances of what he had done.

In a victim personal statement which was read to the court the victim said the abuse had left her with lasting emotional difficulties also making her ‘immensely distrustful’ of men.

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She added that she had begun drinking and taking drugs after the ‘emotional trauma’ she suffered at Cooper’s hands as a coping mechanism.

She said: "I took many dangerous risks as I saw myself as worthless. As a teenager I gained a label of being difficult, challenging and rebellious."

She went on to say that the ordeal of recounting what had happened to her to police had 're-traumatised her'.

In mitigation at Friday's hearing defence barrister Peter Du Feu said that while his client’s position was that he doesn’t have a clear recollection of what happened he accepted the allegations were true.

He added that Cooper had been a ‘hard worker’ throughout his life and was now a man with a family of his own.

He said: “Custody is going to hit him very hard indeed.”

Sentencing, Jude Nigel Daly said: "It is quite clear to me that looking at your life as a whole you have lived a good and productive life within the community.

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“I have got to sentence you for something you did a long time ago.

“Although it is a long time ago you have heard the impact that it had upon your victim.

“You will appreciate that this sort of behaviour by adult men on children is unacceptable and has to be marked by the courts by an immediate custodial punishment.”

Cooper was jailed for a total of three years and must also pay a statutory victim surcharge.