A former Shropshire man described by police as a “ruthless, predatory paedophile” has been convicted of the sustained sexual abuse of a young girl in Jersey.

Claude James Donnelly, 69, was born in Bishop’s Castle, but later moved to St Brelade, in Jersey.

He started abusing his nine-year-old victim in 1968 when he indecently assaulted her in his car.

The assaults became increasingly serious and Donnelly started raping the girl from the age of 12 until she was 14.

Yesterday in the Royal Court, a jury took two-and-a-half hours to deliver verdicts.

They unanimously found him guilty of raping the girl four times, indecently assaulting her 11 times, and commissioning her to carry out an act of gross indecency on him.

He was acquitted of a charge of first indecently assaulting her when, aged eight, she was asleep in bed. He denied all the charges.

However, Donnelly had admitted two offences of indecent assault when she was 13 or 14, but had claimed that sexual intercourse took place with her consent – a claim which she denied.

The jury heard harrowing evidence from the victim describing how Donnelly had started to abuse her when she was a child.

She said she had felt powerless to stop him because he warned her that there would be terrible consequences for her if she did.

Donnelly will be sentenced in the Royal Court on August 21.

Following the verdict, it can now be reported that Donnelly was also convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl while his dying wife was in the next room.

Last month an Assize jury found him guilty of three separate charges of indecent assault and one charge of rape. The offences happened between January 1980 and January 1982.

Outside the Royal Court yesterday, Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Gradwell, who heads the historical child abuse inquiry, said that Donnelly was a “ruthless, predatory paedophile.

Although the investigation of Donnelly was part of the child abuse inquiry, it was not connected in any way with Haut de la Garenne.

By Hannah Costigan