A ‘JACK the Lad’ sex offender has been jailed for abusing a 15-year-old girl after plying her with alcohol and showing her his collection of horror movie memorabilia.

Daniel Kelly invited the naïve teenager to his home in Newton Abbot to play computer games but got her drunk before groping her on two different occasions.

One of the assaults took place in the laundry room at the house in Jetty Marsh Road which doubled up as a mini-museum devoted to his interest in horror films.

He had spent two months grooming the girl with sexualised Facebook messages before moving on to abuse her in the final days of her summer holiday.

He lured her to his home by offering games, alcohol and fun, when he was living on his own and regularly inviting young girls to go there to drink or use cannabis.

The girl was very naïve and had never even kissed a boy before. She was vulnerable because of problems at home which had already led her to self-harm.

His abuse, which happened in 2011, left her with a lifetime of traumatic memories and she was so embarrassed and confused that she did not go to the police until after a suicide attempt in 2018.

She wrote a victim impact statement saying she still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares, and a fear of close physical conduct with some men.

Kelly had already abused two other girls before he touched and kissed the girl. He was jailed for two years for those offences in 2017.

Kelly, aged 40, now of Paignton, denied but was found guilty of two counts of sexual activity with a child by jury at Exeter Crown Court in June. He was jailed for two years and nine months by Judge Peter Johnson, who made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which restricts his future contact with children. He was also put on the sex offenders’ register for life.

He told him: ‘Your offending had a marked impact on the victim. She had significant issue and you were aware she was a vulnerable young teenager.

‘Your antecedents show that when you were in your 20s, you were something of a Jack the Lad and had already assaulted other children, with alcohol again being supplied.

‘In this case, there was touching of her naked breasts, grooming, and a significant disparity in age. It was not an aberration on your part, it was ingrained behaviour.’

During the trial, the girl has told the jury how Kelly assaulted her twice, kissing her on the lips and touching her bottom on the first occasion, when he showed her his collection of horror memorabilia.

She said he got into bed with her after she drank too much on a later visit when he touched her breast and guided her hand onto his groin and put his hand between her legs.

Kelly denied any inappropriate touching but and said the Facebook messages had been joking rather than an attempt at grooming.

He said: ‘I did not abuse her, either by kissing her, touching her bottom or groping her breast. I was well aware she had problems and I tried to make things better for her and tell her things would get better.’