A pensioner repeatedly sexually assaulted a young girl over two years and tried to pretend it was to explain "where babies came from."
Norman Search molested the child, who was under the age of 10, at different locations, and once when they were together watching the planes land, in Speke, at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
On seven occasions, the 74-year-old committed sex acts against the girl, which has left her emotionally and mentally scarred.
The abuse continued until June last year, when the victim's mum discovered dried blood in her daughter's underwear, and she tearfully revealed for the first time: "He touches me and scratches me down there."
Search, from Prescot, had told the girl it was "their secret".
The girl later told detectives interviewing her the sex attacks "made her sad," Liverpool Crown Court heard.
The abuse left her struggling to sleep, prosecutor Daniel Travers said, and she would get out of bed and draw to try and forget about what had happened.
She told officers Search had touched her inappropriately during a drive, once in a car park and in a remote area where "cars don't park."
When the girl confided in her mum and then police, Search initially protested his innocence, describing his arrest as "a joke," adding, "You've just got to go with the law and that's it."
He tried to momentarily blame his victim, claiming she would lift up her skirt, and even ludicrously reckoned he was "going along with her fantasy."
Still in denial, Search also lied that he was trying to address her worms and "itchy bottom."
His wife, who was at court, asked him about the emerging claims, and he said he didn't know why he had done it, and couldn't explain it.
The girl recalled Search pulling her pants down as she watched TV and described how "it wasn't nice."
He once tried to distance himself from the allegations, and said: "It's not in the picture, God Almighty! Sex is not in the picture."
Powerful and emotional victim impact statements were read out by the girl's parents, who chose to deliver their speeches from the witness box themselves.
The mum described the "pain and suffering" the family had experienced over the last eight months.
And she said: "I felt as though something inside me had died, something I don't think will ever come back.
"I find myself in the most horrible of situations."
She told how her daughter's anger increased due to the abuse, sometimes smashing up toys or her parents' property.
The child now struggles in school with male members of staff, as she added: "As her mum, I have no idea how to support her through all this mess."
The mum has experienced emotions of "anger, hatred, loss, emptiness, guilt and hopelessness," and has self-harmed herself due to the trauma, it was heard.
She added: "I feel I have let her [my daughter] down when she needed me the most."
Her partner, in his own Victim Impact Statement, said: "The past eight months have been the toughest I have ever experienced.
"I wanted this to be a lie, a mistake, these crimes you only expect to see on the news..."
Search, who pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual abuse, was also charged with three similar offences with another child, but the prosecution chose not to proceed with those counts.
Tom Watson, defending Search, describing his client as a "good man" and a "family man," and said he would "seek assistance" for his behaviour.
The barrister added: "It's difficult for him to come to terms with.
"This carries with it a label and a stigma that will remain with him for the rest of his life.
"He is not a young man, although he is relatively fit, and he doesn't know what the future holds in terms of his health or well-being, or how long he will live."
Judge Louise Brandon told Search, of Tenlands Drive: "It's no exaggeration to say, the impact has devastated the family and changed her[the victim's] life forever."
She pinpointed the "planning and grooming" which the 74-year-old had used, describing his behaviour as "wicked" and "terrible."
Search, described as a man of "largely good character," was jailed for nine years and nine months.
A Sexual Harm Prevention Order was imposed and the pensioner must also sign the Sex Offender's Register for life.
A person in the public gallery started applauding when Search's sentence was delivered.
