A FARM worker has been jailed for the historic abuse of two girls who were left with a legacy of hurt.

Frederick Vickery tried to rape one of the victims when she was just seven and touched the breast of the other when she was 15.

The two offences happened six years apart in the 2000s but Vickery was only brought to justice after the girls went to the police in the past few years.

One read out her victim impact statement to Exeter Crown Court where she told the judge he was a monster who had driven her to the brink of suicide.

She said she had lived with 18 years of emotional pain and had come forward to protect future generations from his abuse. She has been diagnosed with complex post traumatic stress disorder.

The other said that she had made her first disclosure at the time she was studying for GCSEs and the stress of the case had damaged her education.

Both said their future relationships had been affected by the abuse they suffered as children.

Vickery, of Tedburn St Mary, denied attempted rape and indecent assault but was found guilty at a trial last month.

He was jailed for seven-and-a-half years with a one-year extended licence and put on the sex offenders’ register for life by Judge David Evans.

He told him: "It is hard to underestimate how hard it must be, at any age, to speak to other people about something as personal as sexual assault.

“What you did to each girl was serious and caused the emotional and psychological distress I have heard about in the victim personal statements.

“They are clear evidence of how deeply the ripples in the pool have spread out over time. Memories of such abuse can cause continuing hurt as the years go by.”

During a week-long trial, the jury heard how the first assault took place when Vickery was visiting a farm in Mid Devon in the early 2000s.

He approached the 15-year-old girl when she was sitting alone watching television and put his hands inside a blanket which she had wrapped around her and touched her breasts.

The second assault happened a few years later and involved him trying to have sex with a seven-year-old girl.

She told a teacher when she was in her teens and the police were called. He was not prosecuted for either case initially but was eventually arrested in 2016.

Vickery denied any contact with the first girl and said any with the second was accidental.

Miss Mary McCarthy, defending, said he has spent his entire life working outdoors and will find prison especially difficult to endure.