A man who tried to rape a 12-year-old girl in Axminster has been jailed for nine and a half years.

Friday Uguru was in Britain illegally at the time he attacked the girl, having arrived from Nigeria on a visitor’s visa and overstayed. The Home Office had given him a notice to leave three years before the assault, which happened in November 2017.

The girl suffered severe psychological trauma as a result of his attack and a six-year wait for justice that blighted her adolescence and led her to drug abuse, self-harm and suicide attempts.

 A judge at Exeter Crown Court praised her courage after she confronted Uguru in the dock as she read a harrowing victim personal statement. She said : “It was like a bomb that went off in my life. It messed up my whole world. I did not think I would make it past 14.”

Asked what she wanted to say to Uguru, she said: “You have ruined my life. I just want to know why you did it. You should never have been able to get away with what you did.”

The court heard that Uguru travelled to Axminster by train on the night of the attack and assaulted the girl in an upstairs bedroom while her mother was cooking downstairs.

Forensic scientists found his DNA on her underwear but he denied the offence, claiming it had been planted in an elaborate plot to frame him. Judge David Evans described that as ‘ludicrous and preposterous’.

 Uguru, aged 50, previously of Pinhoe Road in Exeter, but now of no fixed address, denied attempted rape but was found guilty by the jury at his trial in February. He was sentenced on Thursday, May 2 to nine years and six months in jail with a one-year extended licence by Judge Evans. Uguru will be deported when he ends his sentence.

The judge told him his decision to abscond had caused untold psychological damage to the victim, who had to wait more than six years to receive justice.

He told Uguru: “I have heard her personal statement in which she sets out clearly and eloquently how what you did to her has affected her very profoundly and severely. Her whole adolescence was affected by what you did and your subsequent disappearance.

 “She has shown great courage and fortitude in seeing this case through. You undoubtedly caused severe psychological harm.”

Mr Barry White, defending, said Uguru had taken advantage of being alone with the girl and his offence was opportunistic rather than predatory. He said he had disappeared because he was worried about being deported rather to evade justice.