A MAN from Weston has been found guilty of sexually abusing his half-sister for six years.

The 27-year-old, who we cannot name for legal reasons, was today found guilty at Bristol Crown Court on 16 counts of indecent assault and one attempted rape relating to the period of abuse, which lasted from 1997 to 2002.

He has been remanded in custody until July 6, when he will again appear at the court for sentencing.

Last week the Mercury reported the shocking evidence given in court via videolink by the sister, who is now 19, about how the abuse started when he was aged 13 and she was just five years old.

The 17 charges all related to incidents which happened in the family’s home in central Weston, and began when he assaulted her in a tent they had put up in the garden.

At the trial, the sister told the court that the abuse escalated as the pair got older, saying that it had become so commonplace by the time it ended that she had ‘come to live with it as part of my life’.

The abuse culminated in an attempt by the defendant to rape her in a bedroom in the home, after he showed her a pornographic video.

The sister did not tell anyone about the appalling catalogue of abuse until she went to Weston police station on May 14 last year, where she revealed the details to officers, eventually leading to her brother’s arrest.