Paedophile jailed 'indefinitely' for raping girl

A paedophile who while under community supervision repeatedly raped a nine-year-old girl has been jailed indefinitely.

Kevin Hazelwood, 40, from Brighton, was told that he must serve a minimum of five years and seven months at Lewes Crown Court today.

Hazelwood had pleaded guilty to six counts of rape, two charges of attempted rape and two counts of indecent assault on the same victim, as well as charges of sexual activity with or in the presence of a child under 13, assaults on a girl dating back to the 1980s and making indecent movies of children.

Hazelwood was on the sex offenders' register at the time of the assaults on the nine-year-old after he admitted downloading child pornography from the internet.

Prosecuting, Gillian Etherton said that Hazelwood had befriended the girls' parents and used the relationship to “systemically sexually abuse” her, from the age of six up until two weeks before his arrest in November 2005.

Miss Etherton said that the abuse came to light when the girl told her mother what 'Uncle Kevin' did to her.

Judge Richard Hayward described Hazelwood as “cunning and manipulative” and said that he had been “unable or unwilling” to control his paedophile urges. He said: “You gave every indication of complying with the Sex Offenders' Register and there is no reason why a hard-pressed probation officer or anyone else should know anything about it.

“You are a determined and predatory paedophile and you will remain a danger to young girls for the foreseeable future.”

The girl's mother released a statement on Thursday. It said: “Hazelwood's actions have shocked and repulsed me to the core. He has crushed my world.”

Police and probation services in Sussex said that Hazelwood had been under the supervision of Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements and said that it was “very rare” for offenders under supervision to commit an offence.

(KMcA)