A CHILDMINDER who repeatedly abused a 10-year-old girl in his care has been jailed for two years and eight months.

In the years leading up to the offending Clifford Pilley had twice been investigated for his computer use but never prosecuted after nothing could be proved.

And after the 55-year-old was arrested for molesting the little girl he was also found to have hundreds of indecent images of children stored on his desktop computer.

Tara Wolfe, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court Pilley’s wife Tina was a registered childminder in Swindon and he worked for her.

In May last year she said a mother collected her daughter from the couple and wondered why she had £2 in 50p pieces with her.

When she asked the girl where she got it from she replied the defendant had given her the money and told her not to tell Tina.

The girl looked uncomfortable when asked why he had done that saying she feared she would be in trouble and revealed he had ‘been saying rude things to her’.

And she also told her mum he had been kissing her and touching her bare chest when his wife was in the shower.

Pilley also that she was sexy.

She said that he had given her money so that she would not tell anyone about what had been going on.

After he was arrested he said that officers would find nothing untoward on the computer he kept in his office at home.

But when it was analysed it not only had hundreds of images and cartoons of child abuse, as well as bestiality, but it was found he had put vile terms in search engines to hunt for the material.

Pilley, of Home Farm, Highworth, admitted two counts of sexual assault of a child and possessing indecent images, pseudo images and extreme pornography.

In 2008 search terms showing an interest in pre-teen girls had been found on his computer but no images were found and another man had access to the machine.

About two years later he was again investigated but not proceeded against.

Richard Williams, defending, said his client suffered from adjustment disorder, self-harmed and had twice attempted suicide.

He said he had served in the Forces for a long period before working with his wife and was extremely remorseful for what he had done.

After his arrest he said Pilley and his wife, who is standing by him, closed the business and sold their house.

“In short you were employed as a child minder and you used the opportunity of doing that work to abuse a child, aged 10.

“It seems to me there was an element of grooming: this was a gross abuse of trust. It wasn’t a next door neighbour being asked to look after a child: it was registered child minder.

“Some aggravating features including some minimisation, the fact that you tried to buy her silence. In terms of trust it is hard to imagine a worse breach of trust.

“In terms of the touching it was the breast area which while serious it is less serious than other parts of the body.

“It seems from the things you said to the child you had other things in mind for the future if your grooming was successful but, while I don’t sentence you for that, I can’t ignore it.”

Jailing Pilley, Judge Robert Pawson also imposed a sexual harm prevention order which will last for life and told him to register as a sex offender for life.