A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed for 14 years for sexually assaulting a child.
Stuart Clowes, 61, of Eastmoor, was handed the lengthy sentence by a judge who said he continued to pose a high risk to children.
Clowes, of Barden Road, was found guilty of three offences of assault by penetration on a girl under the age of 13.
His victim was forced to give evidence at a trial at Leeds Crown Court last month.
The offences came to light after Clowes was arrested in 2007 for downloading indecent images of children. And he was jailed for three-and-a-half years for those offences in 2009.
A total of 20,000 pictures and videos of girls were discovered on his computer. Some videos involved animals and children.
The offences were exposed after a legitimate astronomy website in Croatia was hacked into and child sex abuse images posted on the site.
Within just two days the website received 12 million hits from 114,000 different computers in 170 countries. Because it was a legitimate website, UK police could trace every computer that had accessed the images.
The investigation led them to Clowes, who fled the country to the Philippines seven days after his arrest. He was arrested at Heathrow Airport when he returned to the UK.
Clowes told police he had so many images and videos his computer hard drive had filled up and his computer was slowing down, so he used CDs to store them.
Clowes continued to deny the offences against the young girl or having a sexual interest in children.
Jailing him last Friday, judge Neil Clark told Clowes: “You continue to pose a high risk of harm to children. It is apparent therefore in your case to pass a sentence for public protection.”
Clowes must serve an extended licence period of four years when he is released from jail.