A Hounslow family has been torn apart by the jailing of a 39-year-old father-of-one for sex offences.

Rajesh Malhotra, of Rose Heath Road, was found guilty by a jury at Isleworth Crown Court last month of three charges of indecently assaulting a girl aged between nine and 11. He was cleared of a charge involving her younger sister.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now an adult who was said to be "very traumatised" by the regular abuse between 1997 and 2000.

Jailing Malhotra for three years and ordering him to remain on the sex offenders' register for life, Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson told him: "You repeatedly took advantage of her and sexually assaulted her.

"The sexual abuse of a young woman over a protracted period has to be taken seriously, not least because of the effects on the victim."

Prosecutor Simon Wild told the jury: "The sexual abuse took place over three years and occurred quite frequently. When the young girl was about 11 she told her mother. She didn't see the man for some time until recently. She realised the damage he had done and reported it to the police in June last year when she was 18."

Malhotra denied seven charges relating to the two sisters and was found guilty of three charges concerning the older girl.

He claimed it simply did not happen and still denies he is guilty. His counsel Anthony Wilcken told the court, however, that he had now come to terms with the verdict and that his wife was supporting him.