A MAN who carried out a string of serious sex attacks on a Dudley schoolgirl has been locked up for 22 years.

Judge Amjad Nawaz told Joseph Morton, aged 36: “Your predatory instincts took over and you conducted a campaign of sexual abuse against this young girl.”

He said it was clear there had been “planning and grooming” behind the offences and it was an aggravating feature of the case that Morton told the girl not to inform anyone about what he was doing.

“This was on any view sustained abuse,” he told Morton at Wolverhampton Crown Court as he ruled he must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Morton, of Central Drive, Coseley, had denied a total of 12 charges involving rape and sexual assault but he was found guilty on all counts by a jury at the end of his trial.

Bernard Linnemann, prosecuting, described the victim as “particularly vulnerable” and stressed she had suffered psychological damage as a result of the offences.

The judge said it was a sustained pattern of sexual behaviour - systematic abuse against a young victim who had been under 16 years of age.

Morton, a man of previous good character, was also told by the judge he must never work with children.