A man who sexually assaulted a young girl while she was asleep has been jailed.

Patrick Meeks denied any wrongdoing when the incident was reported to the police in 2019, and after being charged with the offence maintained his innocence, and took the case to trial.

However, in June, following a five-day hearing, he was found guilty of assault by penetration against his child victim.

In a statement, the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the incident, which happened in Burnley more than three years ago, left her anxious, and for a while she was self-harming as people refused to believe her, with some telling her, “you probably asked for it”.

She said she now can’t be alone with a grown man and doesn’t like to go out, and has spent a lot of time away from Burnley, which has made things slightly easier for her.

At Preston Crown Court on Wednesday, Meeks, of Belford Street, Burnley, was jailed for six years.

Judge Heather Lloyd said: “There’s no remorse from you or any insight into what you have done. You even blamed your victim.

“She now says she’s a very different person to who she was before and feels anxious and finds herself wary around men.

“She’s had to endure people not believing her and telling her to ‘get over it’.

“She’s not the liar here - the jury found that you are.

“There’s been a delay with this coming to court, but that’s because of a delay with the DNA samples, and I don’t know why it took until April 2021 for them to be sent off.

“Maybe Covid played a part yes, but it was your denials which led to the overall delay in this coming to court.”

Judge Lloyd jailed Meeks, 50, for six years, placed him on the sex offenders register for life and made him subject to a sexual harm prevention order until further notice.