A paedophile from Ramsey has been sent to prison for 16 months for indecently assaulting the eleven-year-old daughter of one of his friends.

Sixty-six-year-old Brian Stephen Goodspeed was working as a door to door salesman when the girl joined him on one of his rounds in 2006.

The court heard he took her to a secluded area in his car and assaulted her.

Goodspeed then wrote a letter to the girl's mother, who was his friend, claiming her daughter had taken his hand and touched her breast with it, in an effort to blackmail him.

He put the letter in a sealed envelope and got the woman to sign it, without her knowing the contents.

Goodspeed then kept the letter and presented it in court as part of his defence.

The court heard Goodspeed was convicted of a similar offence against a ten-year-old girl in 1974.

In addition to the prison sentence he was put on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

At the conclusion of the case Detective Sergeant Cathryn Bradley of the Public Protection Unit Investigation Team said: 'This man is a predator who used his friendship and employment to target a vulnerable child. He then compounded his actions by deliberately attempting to create a defence and blaming the victim. He will be closely monitored upon his release from prison to minimise the risk that he poses within the community. This case is another example of the seriousness with which the police take historical allegations of sexual abuse, and a thorough and professional investigation resulted in Mr Goodspeed pleading guilty'.