A Suffolk pensioner has been jailed for the "repugnant" rape of a vulnerable teenage girl.

Trevor Monk returned to resume raping his victim in a cellar after being disturbed by someone entering the building upstairs, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

The 70-year-old, of Engelhard Road, Newmarket, had denied three counts of rape, sexual assault and causing the girl to engage in sexual activity without consent.

However, he finally admitted two rape offences on the day he was due to stand trial – sparing his victim the further trauma of having to relive the ordeal.

Prosecutor Joanne Eley said the remaining offences would lie on file and result in no further proceedings without the leave of the court.

She described the 16-year-old victim as having been "incredibly vulnerable, with emotional difficulties and no sexual experience".

Married father-of-two, Monk, who has cerebral palsy, repeatedly asked the girl if she was a virgin; touched her, kissed and hugged her, and put her hand on his penis on separate occasions before raping her in 2018.

Miss Eley said Monk stopped and went upstairs to greet someone when they entered the building, before returning to continue raping the girl, despite her attempts to push him away.

Monk was arrested after the girl recalled what had happened to her mother.

He claimed the girl had consented to intercourse and had, at no point, tried to push him away.

Miss Eley said the girl had since suffered flashbacks and anxiety, and had made attempts to end her life.

Jonathan Goodman, mitigating, said Monk was a man of previous good character, who, however odd it seemed, believed his advances were not being rebuffed.

"He catastrophically misinterpreted events," added Mr Goodman.

"It has taken him a long time to look inwards, to appreciate and realise that what he did was unacceptable."

Judge Emma Peters said the victim's life had been devastated by Monk's actions.

Before jailing him for seven years and imposing an indefinite restraining order, banning him from ever contacting his victim, Judge Peters told Monk: "This was a young, vulnerable girl, who was repulsed by the repugnant rape she suffered at the hands of an old man."