A Dartmoor child abuser who claimed he had been framed by his victim’s family has been found guilty of 11 counts of indecency.

Factory worker Gary Tomlinson compared his accusers to the notorious Manson family which was responsible for a series of murders in America in the 1960s.

He was told he will face a long jail sentence when he returns to Exeter Crown Court next month.

Tomlinson, aged 56, of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, denied but was found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and four of indecency with a child.

He was remanded in custody pending sentence by Recorder Mr Malcolm Galloway. He told him: ‘This case is very serious and will be marked by a substantial period of imprisonment.

‘I have watched you give evidence and listened to your manipulation over the years and the way you have approached the conduct of this case. I have to consider the risk of further offending.’

During a four-day trial the jury heard how Tomlinson touched a girl inappropriately when he had access to her between the ages of six and nine in the 1990s.

She told her mother at the time but a decision was made by her and her family not to go to the police. The victim herself only summoned the courage to go to the police in 2015.

Tomlinson told the jury the allegations were untrue and ridiculous. In police interviews he claimed the complainant had been put up to it by her family as part of a long-standing grudge against him.

He told officers he thought the family, from South Devon, were like the Manson Family, the hippy group which murdered Sharon Tate in 1969.