A sexual abuser with a cruel streak has been convicted in his absence after a court was told of the campaign he waged against a schoolgirl.
The 40-year-old from Herefordshire fled to Peru while on bail before his trial could take place at Worcester Crown Court.
Defendants are now warned by judges that if they don’t turn up for trial, the hearing can proceed without them.
A jury found him guilty of 12 offences of rape, sexual assault and child cruelty.
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is currently being held in jail in Lima but extradition proceedings are in hand to send him back to Britain.
Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins QC handed down an indeterminate sentence for public protection.
He ruled that the accused, who lived in a village near Hereford, must serve seven-and-half years in custody before the parole board decide whether it is safe to release him.
But with his record of child abuse and the bid to escape justice, parole is unlikely to be granted.
The defendant carried out the crimes against his step-daughter after moving in with the child’s mother.
Instead of protecting her daughter, the mother sided with her lover.
She was sentenced to four years jail at an earlier hearing for ill-treatment, neglect and assault.
The schoolgirl’s ordeal began around September 2005 when she was aged nine, said Jonas Hankin, prosecuting.
She was regularly beaten with a belt, headbutted, made to swallow washing-up liquid, had her face smeared with dog excrement and warned she would be buried in the garden.
The defendant raped her on one occasion and molested her in other ways.
Her attacker was convicted of incest and indecent assault on his own sister in 1989 when she was aged five or six.
Other alleged victims have made complaints to police but no other charges were brought.
However, in the 1990s a child the defendant had fathered with another woman was removed by social services because of the risk he posed.
Mr Hankin said: “He knew no sexual boundaries and admitted fantasising about children. “He is a paedophile with a cruel streak. There’s no doubt that this man is dangerous.”
The defendant was caught because a teacher noticed the girl had sustained a head bruise on May 21, 2008, when she was aged 12.
She eventually admitted that her stepfather had headbutted her in a row over breakfast.
The girl said life was so miserable at home she wished she could kill herself.
Police found she had scratched the word “help” in paintwork at the foot of her bed.
She was taken into care along with her two younger step-brothers.
Mr Hankin said a long prison sentence would bring some finality to the case for the victim and help her recover from years of bullying, intimidation and sexual abuse.
Defence barrister Lee Marklew argued that the public could be protected by a determinate sentence with a long licence period once the defendant was released from a British jail.
But Mr Hankin said such a sentence would be insufficient safeguard for a man whose inclination to attack youngsters was very much alive.
Two of the eight child cruelty charges related to the girl’s step-brothers who were caused psychological harm by being exposed to the abuse of their step-sister.
