A Suffolk farmworker has been jailed for a string of offences in which he preyed on a teenage girl over a period of around five years.

Gordon Davies-Morris, 46, of Kirton Road in Trimley St Martin, near Felixstowe, was found guilty on May 6 of five offences of sexual activity with a child and one offence of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, including sexually assaulting a teenager in a tractor, and having intercourse with her in a barn.

Appearing at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday, Davies-Morris was sentenced to 12 years in prison, as well as being issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order prohibiting him to come into contact with any female aged 16 or under, except in instances where it is inadvertent or not reasonably avoidable, and put on the sex offenders register for life.

Judge Martyn Levett said: “In this case there is no question that a criminal sentence of some length can be justified.

“In my judgement, the harm that’s been caused is very significant.”

During his trial, the court heard that Davies-Morris touched the victim inappropriately when she was 13, before getting her to masturbate him and then having sex with her.

Speaking during the trial, Duncan O’Donnell, prosecuting, said Davies-Morris had got the girl to touch him intimately in a tractor while he was at work and had sex with her in a barn.

The offences came to light after the girl told a relative last year what Davis-Morris had done to her.

At his sentencing Davies-Morris spoke only to confirm his name.

He was convicted of six child offences, serving a prison sentence for each concurrently for a total of 12 years imprisonment.