A 22-year-old man has been jailed for 15 months for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl and threatening to kill her father.

Craig Dean left the terrified child curled in a ball crying after molesting her at a flat in Bradford, a court heard on Friday.

Dean, of Knowle Park, Keighley, admitted sexually assaulting a child under 13 and making a threat to kill her father in May this year.

Prosecutor David McGonigal said the girl’s father found her distressed and crying and she told him what Dean had done to her.

Dean was pinned down by the angry father and Dean bit him on the thigh as he tried to dial 999 to summon the police.

The men struggled and the father suffered a swollen face and bruised arm. As police led Dean away, he shouted: “You are going to get killed,” at the father and threatened arresting officers.

Dean’s barrister, Nikki Peers, said the sexual assault was an opportunistic one-off offence. Dean used no coercion or intimidation and had no real intention of harming her father.

Miss Peers said Dean was a vulnerable young man with a troubled background who had already spent 125 days in custody on remand.

Judge Jonathan Rose told him: “You took the opportunity to commit a foul and vile act.”

The judge made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order against Dean and ordered him to register with the police as a sex offender for ten years.