A FORMER pub worker from Cirencester who raped and sexually abused a girl and also indecently assaulted a boy years earlier, has been jailed for 15 years.

Vincent Morris, 55, of Austin Road, was told he will have to spend at least half his sentence behind bars and even then will not be released unless the Parole Board decide it is safe to let him out.

At the end of the 15 year term he will also be subject to a two year extended parole period during which he could still be recalled to prison.

Morris had denied ten charges - three of indecently assaulting a boy when he was aged four to five in the mid-1970s and seven of sexual assault of a girl aged between six and 12 in the years 2002-2009. One of those charges was of raping the girl.

On Monday, a jury found him guilty by majority verdicts of nine of the ten charges, including the rape allegation, and he was sentenced by Judge Jamie Tabor QC on Tuesday.

The judge told Morris that he had left the girl victim's life 'in ruins.'

"Her life is a mess," said Judge Tabor.

He imposed a 12 year sentence for raping the girl and three years consecutively for the three most serious sexual assaults on her. For three earlier sexual assaults on the girl Morris received concurrent one and two year sentences.

The judge passed no separate penalty for Morris' three offences against the boy, saying that as Morris was himself only 15 at the time it was unlikely that if convicted in the 70s he would have received custody.

The boy had told the jury of three occasions when offences took place.

Prosecutor Anna Vigars said the girl who was abused and raped by Morris finally plucked up courage to tell her mother when she was 15. However, it was several years before she was ready to make a complaint and when she did her mother called the NSPCC and the police were alerted.

"In due course, the police went to speak to Mr Morris. He was absolutely clear that he had not abused these two complainants. He said there had been nothing sexual between them, no impropriety at all. He said the allegations had no truth to them," the barrister said.

Part of the prosecution evidence against Morris during last week's trial came from a woman who had alleged that he sexually abused her in her childhood.

He stood trial for those allegations in Oxford in 2002 and was found not guilty.

That woman gave evidence at last week's trial and repeated her allegations. The prosecution argued that even though Morris had been acquitted of molesting her the account she gave was so similar to the later victim's that it supported their case.

Before Morris was sentenced, defence solicitor Jason Coulter said that Morris had been traumatised by the Oxford trial in 2002 and afterwards had moved from the area because of the local stigma there.

He had then descended into loneliness and isolation, he said.

He had been on medication for depression and anxiety but had weaned himself off it - until he was charged with the current offences, he added.

Mr Coulter said Morris' night in custody after his conviction yesterday was his first taste of prison and "it was a wholly frightening and unenjoyable experience for him.'