A former grammar school boy has been jailed after repeatedly raping a child more than a decade ago - while aged 13.

Shane Heseltine-Holland, now 27, attacked his victim four to five times during a campaign of “manipulation, coercion and control.”

The former Dover Grammar School pupil was jailed for 29-months at Canterbury Crown Court for the attacks, carried out about 14 years ago.

His sentencing was adjourned earlier this year for psychiatric reports, to investigate potential learning difficulties and his claims of suffering “high functioning autism.”

But psychiatrists refuted his self-diagnosis telling the court it served as self-distraction from being an “opportunistic sex offender.”

Dr Musfaza Husain said Heseltine-Holland: “Self-identifies with ‘high functioning autism’ partly as a means to reduce personal culpability for what he did against the victim.

“I think such a self identity also sustains his self-esteem against the more painful awareness and shame of being an opportunistic child sex offender."

"He self-identifies with ‘high functioning autism’ partly as a means to reduce personal culpability for what he did against the victim..."

However, the psychiatrist conceded Heseltine-Holland’s “toxic” upbringing may have contributed to his horrifying behaviour.

Judge Mark Weekes sympathised with Heseltine-Holland’s “deeply troubled childhood” but voiced worries over his attitude as an adult.

“I am concerned to see elements of victim blaming and self-justification within the pre-sentence report, and to note that even as a fully grown adult, you seem unable fully to appreciate the fact that your sexual behaviour was directed towards a young girl who could not possibly have understood or appreciated what was going on,” he said.

The court heard Heseltine-Holland launched multiple attacks on his defenceless victim over two months.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of raping a girl under 13 and assaulting a girl under 13 at an early opportunity.

His barrister, Miss Robinson, argued the offending was over a relatively short period of six to eight weeks and he stopped after realising the severity of his actions.

Heseltine-Holland, of previous good character, had not offended since the attacks 14 years ago, she added.

Heseltine-Holland, of Guildhall Street in Folkestone, received a third of the sentence he would have, if he were to be sentenced as an adult.

He, who could be seen breathing heavily throughout the hearing, will be subjected to notification requirements for five years on release from prison.

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