A pensioner is beginning an 18-month jail sentence for a "despicable" sex attack on a six-year-old girl.

Retired seaman Roy Carter, 70, molested the girl after tucking her into bed, Inner London Crown Court heard yesterday.

Carter, of Charles Road, St Leonards, had talked of committing suicide after the girl told her father what had happened in August last year. He admitted indecent assault.

David Scutt, defending, said Carter had struggled to understand his reasons for committing the offence.

Jailing him, Judge James Reid QC called it "a despicable offence, which must be abhorrent to everybody".

He said: "It is an offence, which in my judgment can only be met with a custodial sentence."