A BABYSITTER who raped an eight-year-old girl in his care has been jailed for six years at Teesside Crown Court.

Paul Evans, now 25, of Murrayfield Way, Darlington, pleaded guilty to one count of rape, which happened in 1995, as well as unrelated burglary and attempted robbery charges.

Prosecution barrister John Gillette told the trial how Evans gained the trust of the girl's parents before they asked him to look after her at their County Durham home.

It was only last year, he said, that the girl - now aged 15 - revealed what had happened to a friend and then her mother.

Evans was arrested in October last year and questioned over the rape, which he initially denied.

Defence barrister Dan Cordey said that after his arrest, Evans' life fell apart and it was this which drove him to commit burglary and attempt to rob a shop.

He said Evans accepted he was about to be jailed, but should be "given credit for his courage" in entering a guilty plea and saving the girl from the trauma of a trial.

Sentencing, Judge Peter Fox QC said: "But for your age at the time, the sentence would have been much greater."