A woman is drifting through life like a 'zombie' after seven years of sexual abuse at the hands of a pensioner, a court heard.

Malcolm Boswell, 79, carried out a series of attacks when the woman was a child - leaving her so damaged that she is physically uncomfortable in the same room as a man, Norwich Crown Court was told.

Boswell, of Waterside, King's Lynn, was found guilty of 11 of the 13 charges he faced, including three of rape, sexual assault on a child under 13, causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and sexual activity with a child, following a trial last year.

On Monday, he was jailed for a total of 21 years for the crimes, which happened between 2011-18.

Before Boswell was sentenced, Duncan O'Donnell, prosecuting, read out a statement from the victim explaining the impact of the abuse.

She said that as a result of what Boswell had done to her she "couldn't see a man as being an honest and decent human" and described how the "disgusting things" he did to her made her feel physically uncomfortable being in the same room as a man.

She said: "It got to the point where I thought of them as being a filthy sexual disease, a piece of garbage I could throw away."

The court was told that no matter how hard she tried to hide it she could not interact with a man and was unable to have a proper relationship with a man.

She said it has caused her to "miss out on things I wanted to experience".

It also caused her and her mother to drift apart and she said the abuse made her "drift along like a zombie".

Sentencing Boswell, Judge Andrew Shaw said: "The unpleasant reality of this case is that for a seven-year period you committed the most grave and serious sexual abuse."

Judge Shaw took into account the references written on Boswell's behalf as well as his age, but said through his offending he had imposed on his victim a "different kind of life sentence".

He was also made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, indefinite restraining order and put on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Juliet Donovan, mitigating, conceded these were "very serious offences" but insisted he was "not a danger to the public".