A teenage sex-abuse victim endured years of “inner torture” after she was persuaded to drop her allegations against her attacker, a Court heard.

Self-confessed child molester Michael Coates got sympathy for himself by falsely claiming that he too had been a victim of sexual abuse and the girl was pressured into not proceeding with her allegations against him.

It was only three years later when Coates was finally charged with a series of sex offences, including two attempted rapes, that he admitted his own sex-abuse story was a pack of lies.

Today the 23-year-old Bradford man was beginning a six-year jail sentence for the repeated abuse which he accepted had developed from “experimenting” as a ten-year-old boy into a habit.

Coates, now of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to a total of eight charges of indecent assault and two of attempted rape in relation to the first girl and a further four offences of indecent assault in relation to a second.

During yesterday’s hearing at Bradford Crown Court Coates’ barrister Jonathan Rose handed Judge Roger Scott a copy of a suicide note his client had written.

In it he described himself as a child molester and offered his apologies to the two girls for what he had done.

Jailing Coates, Judge Scott told him that he regarded him as a danger to children and highlighted the fact he had told a series of dramatic lies for his own purposes.

“That poor girl must have had a very, very long period of inner torture…she attempted to kill herself as I understand it,” he said.

He said it was a further aggravating feature of the case that Coates had used bribery through sweets, money and cigarettes in exchange for sexual favours.

In addition to the jail sentence, Coates will also have to register with the police as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Prosecutor John Hitchen told the court that the first girl had suffered flashbacks and nightmares after deciding to drop the proceedings in 1998, but she eventually challenged Coates about what he had done in the autumn of last year.

Coates was arrested in October and made admissions in relation to the allegations made by the two girls.

Mr Rose conceded that Coates’ offending had turned into a habit and he was unable to stop himself until he reached the age of 19 in 1997.

He pointed out that since then Coates had not committed any further offences of a sexual nature.

“This is a very young man about to start a sentence for offences against children and through the duration of that sentence he will have no one….it’s going to be a very lonely and a very difficult time,” said Mr Rose.

Telegraph & Argus