An 'evil and twisted' kick boxing instructor from Teignmouth has been jailed for 15 years for raping a teenage girl at his martial arts studio.

Paul Drury groomed the girl for sex when she was just 11 and raped her shortly before her 13th birthday at his home and at the Black Belt Academy he ran in Dawlish.

His sexual attacks took place more than a decade ago but his victim only summoned the courage to go to the police last year and described him to officers as 'a sick, evil, twisted man.

Drury, aged 57, has run his Black Belt Academy for more than 20 years and specialized in teaching kick boxing and tae kwon do.

He taught scores of boys and girls and even ran anti-bullying courses designed to teach school children how to protect themselves in the playground.

After his arrest police found child images on his computer as well as web chats in which he boasted of abusing children.

Drury, of Maudlin Drive, admitted three rapes and four offences of making indecent images and was jailed for 15 years and six months by Judge Simon Carr at Exeter Crown Court.

The Judge also ordered him to sign on the sex offenders' register for life and made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which bans him from contact with children under 16.

He told him: "You started your sexual grooming when this girl was just 11 or 12 and your sexually inappropriate behaviour was clearly intended to prepare her for the rapes that followed.

'You told her this was normal and she would have to accept it and despite she had the enormous courage to fight back, it had no effect on you whatsoever.

'It is self evident this will have devastating psychological consequences which she will have to live with for the rest of her life.

'Sexual images of children were found on your computer, but more troubling are the conversations in chat rooms which indicated your interest in child abuse and showed you seemed to positively revel in it'

David Sapiecha, prosecuting, said the abuse started when the victim was still at primary school and grew more serious when Drury raped the girl shortly before her 13th birthday.

He said the offences took place at his home in Teignmouth at times when he wife was out and at the martial arts academy in Dawlish.

He said: 'He manipulated the circumstances to enable him to have sex with the girl. He offered to take her to places and took her to his academy to have sex there.

'In her interview with the police she described him as a sick, evil, twisted man.'

Mr Sapiecha said Drury denied sexually assaulting the girl and claimed the images may have been downloaded onto his computer by a business rival who had access to the machine.

Miss Mary McCarthy, defending, said Drury deserves credit for admitting the offences and sparing the girl the ordeal of giving evidence. She said he has lived an otherwise blameless life.