A MAN who subjected his half-sister to six years of sexual abuse has been jailed for nine years.

The Weston resident, who the Mercury can not name for legal reasons, started subjecting his younger sibling to the abuse when he was 14 and she was just five.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court found the 27-year-old guilty on all 16 counts of indecent assault and one of attempted rape last month.

The sister, who can also not be named, told the court via videolink that the abuse, which took place at the family’s central Weston home, started in 1997. The 19-year-old said that the abuse escalated in frequency and severity over the six years, and culminated in an attempted rape after he showed her a pornographic film.

That was the last incident, with the assaults stopping when she was 10 years old and he was 18.

The catalogue of abuse only came to light last year, when she reported it to detectives at Weston police station, leading to her brother’s arrest.

As part of the sentence, handed down by a judge on July 6, the brother must also now sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.