Serial child sex attacker Brian Hoverd, who raped and abused three young girls over a period of seven years, has been jailed for 14 years.

Hoverd, 46, was convicted of repeatedly raping and indecently assaulting one girl who was just three years old when the abuse began. Her ordeal went on for six years.

In July a jury at Oxford Crown Court also found Hoverd, of Minster Lovell, guilty of grabbing and raping a teenage girl in a churchyard.

He was cleared of three counts of raping a five-year-old girl, but convicted of three indecent assaults against her. The attacks took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

At the start of the trial, Hoverd denied all 11 charges of rape and 11 indecent assaults, forcing his three victims to relive their childhood ordeals in court.