A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed after repeatedly raping a young teenage girl and sexually abusing another child.

Lance Stride, 45, from Brunswick Square, Hove, was convicted of rape and sexual assault after a trial at Lewes Crown Court.

A judge told him his crimes were “terrible” as she jailed him for 21 years yesterday.

The older of his two victims, who is now an adult, told the court: “I did not know how to stop it.

“I tried to make myself unattractive to stop him from doing it.”

She said she had stopped washing and deliberately put on weight to try to deter Stride from raping her.

But the abuse continued and he raped her on at least six different occasions.

She stopped texting her friends because she feared he would find them and rape them too.

The court heard she caught a sexually transmitted infection from him.

She now takes medication for insomnia, depression and anxiety.

Fern Russell, prosecuting, told the court that Stride had also sexually abused a younger girl.

She suffers from anxiety and often hears voices and talks to herself as a result.

Rachel Laine, defending, told the court Stride’s medical condition was very poor.

He also has a partner who suffers from a long-term, incurable condition.

Ms Laine said: “He is blind in one eye and severely impaired in the other. This will not make things easy for him in prison and it will be very hard for him to build relationships with others.

“He had a transplant and needs to be on medication for life which he is very anxious about.”

Ms Laine also told the judge Stride fears his 80-year-old father will die while he is in jail.

Judge Christine Laing told Stride the jury had found him guilty with “the most compelling evidence”.

She said: “The harm from child sexual abuse is so well known that for your few occasions of sexual gratification, you have rendered [the victims] to long-term harm, perhaps for life.

“You manipulated them by keeping them quiet, which is the worst kind of manipulation, by saying that you will get into the worst kind of trouble, making them feel they had to keep quiet. It was a terrible thing to do.

“I regret the difficulty to your partner and father but in these cases it’s the innocent who suffer more.”