A CHILD rapist “kicked his victim’s puppy so hard some of its teeth came out” a court was told as he was jailed for 23 years.

Alfred Howells, 70, from Pontypool was jailed for a catalogue of horrific historical crimes committed against her.

He had made a thinly veiled threat to throw the girl off a cliff during a campaign of shocking sexual abuse.

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Howells also tossed a £10 note at his victim after he’d raped her, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

His offences began when the complainant was a young girl and went on for a number of years.

Howells would make threats to terrify her and frighten her off from reporting his crimes and would sometimes use violence to show her how serious he was.

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Matthew Roberts, prosecuting, said: “The defendant kicked her puppy so hard some of its teeth came out.

“He made her look over a cliff edge and told her he would make it look like an accident – that was a reference to her falling off the cliff.”

Outlining one of the rapes he subjected her to, Mr Roberts told the court: “She said the defendant was smiling and stinking of alcohol.

“The victim said, ‘I just let him rape me.’

“After he’d raped her, incredulously, he threw a £10 note at her.”

In a victim impact statement read to the court, she said: “I struggle to sleep at night because I think he is in the room.

“I feel he has ruined and basically messed up my life.

“I don’t think I will ever get over it.

“People say I’m a survivor but I don’t feel like that.”

Howells, of Newman Road, Trevethin, Pontypool, pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and two of indecent assault

He had a previous conviction for child rape against a different girl and was jailed for six years in 1991.

Marian Lewis, representing the defendant, said that although her client had pleaded guilty to the offences he continues to deny the charges.

She said Howells told her he had admitted the offences “to get the matter over with”.

Miss Lewis said: “By his guilty pleas he has spared the victim the ordeal of giving evidence in a trial and that is very important in a case like this.

“The defendant is now 70 years of age and is in poor health and he has a number of conditions which require treatment.”

She added: “They are historical offences and happened a long time ago.”

Referring to the incident on the cliff edge, the Recorder of Cardiff, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke, told Howells: “This was a threat to her life.”

The defendant's sentence was made up of a 20-year prison term plus an extended licence period of three years.

Howells will have to register as a sex offender for life.