A scaffolder who treated a young girl as his “sexual plaything” has been convicted of rape and sexual abuse, and jailed for 18 years.

Darren Pitcher of Farthingale Court, Waltham Abbey, pinned down the young girl and put his hand over her mouth the first time he raped her when she was just 11-years-old.

Now 22, his accuser told a jury he raped her five times in three years.

She also said Pitcher, 49, forced himself on her in other sexual ways and into committing sexual acts on him.

He threatened to smother her and kill her in her sleep if she did not do what he wanted.

Speaking to the jury at Chelmsford Crown Court, she said: “He scared the living hell out of me.”

Today (May 24), Judge Recorder Peter Griffiths QC jailed Pitcher for 18 years.

He said his vulnerable victim had suffered severe psychological harm.

“She sets out the devastating effect of the abuse you perpetrated on her and the effect on her young life.

“She has been through overdoses, hospitalisation, depression,” he said.

“What you did, which was unforgiveable, is that you treated her as your sexual plaything, to do as you wanted with her.”

The judge also said Pitcher was still in denial.

“He is still putting forward that the complainant is lying and has come here just to lie and for compensation.”

Pitcher will not be entitled to automatic release once he has completed half his sentence.

The judge said it would be up to the parole board to decide if he was fit to be released before the 18 years were up.

The judge ordered Pitcher to sign the sex offenders' register for life and imposed a sexual harm prevention order, so when he is released he is prohibited from mixing with girls under 16 unsupervised.

Pitcher constantly wiped tears away during sentencing and, as he was led from the dock, he blew a kiss and mouthed “love you” to relatives in the public gallery.

The court heard that his victim consistently told individuals over the years - a friend, a nurse and former boyfriend in 2005, 2009 and 2011 - that she had been abused and identified her attacker as Pitcher.

She had made two suicide attempts.

Pitcher pleaded not guilty to four charges of rape, one of inciting a child into sexual activity, two of assault by penetration and two of sexual assault.

He claimed the victim was lying and added that if she was raped and abused “it was not by me”.

On the second day of his week-long trial he changed his plea to guilty to a tenth offence of sexual activity with a child.

He told police she gyrated on his lap and touched his genitals inside his trousers, and he claimed he pushed her away.

The conviction was unanimous, apart from on two charges.

The jury returned 11-1 guilty verdicts on rape over the age of 13 and on assault by penetration over 13.

The offences happened at a different address in Waltham Abbey between 2004 and 2008.

Pitcher, who was arrested in December 2014, had earlier pleaded guilty to possessing an extreme pornographic image on September 18 2014 involving a person having intercourse with a dog.

The jury of seven women and five men heard that he told officers at his door: “I ain't got nothing to do with this.

“She come on to me and I have not done anything.

“I am sick of people coming to my house and accusing me of rape.”