A 70-year-old Suffolk man who sexually assaulted an 11-year-old schoolgirl has been jailed for four years and four months.

Sentencing John Elsley, Ipswich Crown Court judge Martyn Levett said: “You totally corrupted this little girl’s innocent childhood.”

He accused Elsley of exploiting the child who was found holding her teddy bear after being sexually assaulted by him.

He said the girl had been unable to tell an adult what had happened and had written down what Elsley did to her.

Elsley of Halesworth Road, Linstead, Halesworth, admitted assaulting a child under 13 by penetration and two offences of sexual assault on the same child on the same date in October last year.

In addition to being jailed, Elsley was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the rest of his life and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

He was also banned from ever contacting the victim of the offences and her family.