A former police officer has been jailed for 19 years after a judge told him he had “mercilessly sexually abused a child to fulfil his sick fantasies”.

Ex-soldier Colin Wraight, 66, was this week convicted of raping and assaulting his young victim, who collapsed after giving evidence at Canterbury Crown Court.

The pensioner - who served with Kent Police in Whitstable, Ashford and Ramsgate - had denied the charges against him, putting the girl through the ordeal of a week-long trial.

Her heartbroken mum told the court how her daughter has suffered severe psychological harm since the vile attacks and now regularly experiences nightmares.

In a statement read out as Wraight was sentenced, she said their lives will never be the same again, adding that she tries to stay calm but “inside my head I am screaming”.

She also said her daughter feared Wraight, of St Margaret’s Street, Canterbury, would come through her bedroom window, saying: “I just hold her very, very tightly.”

The jury had heard how the victim drew pictures to reveal to her mother that she had been sexually abused.

She sketched part of a hand and a pair of handcuffs, later telling police that Wraight had threatened to cuff her to a bed and made a “sick video” of the abuse, which she made him delete.

When detectives raided Wraight’s then-home on the Sea View caravan park in Swalecliffe they discovered sets of handcuffs, a police truncheon and a vibrator, together with other sex toys and illegal child images on his computer.

Former army warrant officer Wraight – who also worked as a security guard at the crown court - was arrested at the caravan park on May 5 and later charged, but denied all the offences.

He told the jury that the sex toys were bought because he was into bondage with a lover but struggled with erectile dysfunction.

Following his conviction, he was jailed for 19 years and ordered to serve an extra two when he is eventually released on parole.

Judge Rupert Lowe told Wraight he had a sinister side to his character that he had kept hidden for years.