A HEREFORD sex offender who abused a seven-year-old girl has been jailed for 13 years.

Nathan Harrison, 37, abused two girls across a six-year period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Judge James Burbidge said Harrison, who has more than 70 previous convictions, abused the girls who now realised they had been groomed. He was aged 13 when the offending started.

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Sentencing him to 12 years in prison for 10 counts of indecent assault and indecency, the judge said oral sex with one of the victims “happened frequently”, with one aged just seven when the sex assaults started.

After pleading not guilty, Harrison was found guilty by a jury, who returned a unanimous verdict. The court heard it was likely that he would appeal the sentence.

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After being arrested in 2021 for the offences dating back more than 20 years, Harrison, previously of Whitecross Road, then burgled a chemist and flat in Worcester in October 2022, less than a month before his trial.

Prosecution barrister Sophie Murray said he was caught by a police dog after breaking into the flat in St Johns and then a chemist at around 3am.

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Defence barrister Niall Skinner said Harrison had been “significantly under the grasp of drug addiction” when he stole the prescription medication.

For the burglaries, the judge sentenced him to one year in prison, taking his sentence to 13 years.

He must also sign the sex offenders register for life.