A sex abuser who repeatedly raped a schoolgirl has been jailed for nine years and four months.

The High Court in Glasgow heard 48-year-old sales assistant Mark Hamilton of Dumfriesshire abused the young girl over an eight-year period.

When he was finally quizzed about the horrific abuse, he confessed to police saying: "It was like an addiction."

Hamilton admitted sexually abusing the girl from the age of eight and then raped her from the age of 11 to 19.

Judge Lord Arthurson told the accused: "Your sexual abuse of this girl began when she was eight.

"You repeatedly raped her on occasions too numerous to count.

"You accepted your culpability from the outset and there has been no attempt on your part to minimise the crime.

"However, you callously robbed her of the innocence of childhood and forced her to experience what no child should have to."

Lord Arthurson also placed Hamilton on the sex offenders' register.

Hamilton committed the offences at various addresses in Dumfriesshire.

Prosecutor Liam Ewing QC said: "In February 2019 the complainer disclosed to a work colleague that she had been sexually abused for many years.

"She then told her boyfriend and his parents and her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother called the police."

The victim said she was first sexually abused at eight-years-old by the accused who blindfolded her first.

And when the girl was 11, the accused began regularly raping her and sometimes took photographs during the attacks.

She told police she felt scared and intimidated by Hamilton.

The girl was too frightened to refuse because he would become agitated and angry and shout at her.

Mr Ewing said: "The accused told her the abuse would stop when she was 16 and she believed him.

"When she reached 16 he told it would continue until she was 18 and she thought it would never stop."

The court heard Hamilton began crying when police interviewed him and said: "I just want to kill myself.

"It just happened, then spiralled out of control. It was like an addiction.

"I knew it was wrong and wanted it to stop, but couldn't. I know I'm going to jail."

In her victim impact statement the girl said the abuse and rapes had a serious detrimental effect on her.