Boxing coach groomed and sexually assaulted young girl.

Former boxing coach Robert Moseley has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Moseley, 55, of Bowhill Grove, Thurnby Lodge, Leicester, was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, which related to hundreds of separate incidents.

The court heard that Moseley had sexually assaulted the girl, who was a teenager at the time, several times a week over an 18-month period.

Judge Timothy Spencer described the assaults as "a truly awful thing" and said that Moseley had "used her as some sort of sexual plaything."

"This was an assault upon a vulnerable victim and happened with a worrying frequency – it was all the time," the judge said. "You thought you could use her as some sort of sexual plaything. It's not surprising this has had a huge impact upon her. You derived sexual gratification from this. This was a young woman going through puberty."

The victim, who spoke out after the sentencing, said that she had been unable to tell anyone about the abuse at the time because she was a child and feared no one would believe her.

"Back when it was happening I couldn't tell anyone because I was just a kid and I didn't think anyone would believe me – he'd deny it all and everyone would call me a liar," she said.

She said that she had gone to the police after fearing that Moseley would abuse other children.

"Later on my mental health started getting really bad and I was panicking about what he might do to other kids," she said. "I came forward about this because I couldn't let him do it to someone else – I had to limit his access to kids."