The mother of a young girl raped four times before she was 14 has attacked the seven-year jail term given to her attacker.

Paedophile George Bates, 47, was sentenced yesterday at Bradford Crown Court for 15 offences carried out on the girl between 1988 and 1995.

They included four rapes, a serious sexual assault, three threats to kill, two offences of indecency with a child, gross indecency, two indecent assaults, and physical assault.

Although the sentences add up to a total of almost 60 years, the judge ordered them to run concurrently, meaning that Bates, a former road worker, from Wallsend, Tyneside, will serve a maximum of seven years before he walks free.

Today his victim's 36-year-old mother, who lives in Bradford, criticised the prison sentence.

And she told how the terrifying ordeal had led her daughter, now 17, to attempt suicide on several occasions, cutting her arms and legs in a desperate attempt to end her torment. The teenager has also spent long periods in psychiatric hospital.

"Justice has not been done," she said. "He should have got at least ten years, if not life, because of the severity of the things he did to my daughter.

"She will never get over it. Our family will never get over this. He has ruined so many people's lives.

"Seven years just isn't long enough. Children aren't going to be protected. He's going to come out of prison and do it again."

She added: "My daughter stays at home now. She is becoming a recluse and it will take her a long time to build up her confidence.

"She was scared that he would get off because he threatened to kill all the family including her little brother, who's only seven.

"Now we will have years of worry knowing that he will be out one day, walking the streets."

It is understood the Crown Prosecution Service is considering whether to appeal against the leniency of the sentence.

Bates is married and has two daughters from that marriage, aged 13 and nine.

Today his wife Tracy, who is about to divorce her husband, said: "I am disgusted with it all like everyone is."

Bates lived in Bradford for 25 years and left the city about six years ago. He had two other children from a previous relationship in Bradford before meeting his present wife. They moved from their home in Holme Wood in the early 1990s.

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