Leeds paedophile Terence Bower gave two-year-old girl sexually transmitted disease

A paedophile caught on camera sexually abusing a two-year-old girl has been jailed indefinitely.

The toddler had to undergo an operation after contracting a sexually transmitted disease from Terence Bower, 30, who abused her for up to a year.

Bower, of Newlands Drive, Morley, conned the girl's family into believing he was helping out with childcare.

After the sentencing hearing at Leeds Crown Court, the girl's mother said: "No sentence will ever put right what he has done. We are just happy he can't hurt anybody else's kids."

The toddler's father activated a web camera placed behind her cot when Bower went to the upstairs toilet while visiting their home in Leeds on January 31 last year.

The father, who was controlling the camera from a computer in the living room, wanted to know if Bower was using drugs in the house.

He was horrified to discover the images of abuse on viewing the 13 minute long footage after Bower had left the house.

Bower, who worked for a paint manufacturer in Morley, was captured abusing the girl in the bathroom and a bedroom while furtively glancing behind him.

After a week-long trial in September a Leeds Crown Court jury convicted Bower of two counts of child sex assault and one charge of attempted child sex assault.

Prosecutor, Michelle Colborne said the abuse was "aggressive, repeated and prolonged."

Jailing Bower for the public protection, Judge Kerry Macgill said Bower would serve a minimum eight years in prison and will only be released when he is no longer deemed a danger.

Judge Macgill told him: "It's an appalling crime. She couldn't talk, she couldn't tell anybody, mum or dad, what this man was doing to her so she had to suffer it repeatedly time after time after time. What you did undoubtedly caused her severe pain."

He went on: "In addition to the harm and grief you caused this child you infected her with a sexually transmitted disease, for which she had to have an operation."

The court heard Bower engineered opportunities to abuse the girl in a "predatory" fashion.

Bower continues to deny his guilt.

Judge Macgill said: "What your stance will be in the long term will determine whether or not you ever see the light of day again."

Bower's name will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

Yorkshire Evening Post