SEX attacker Mark Pearton has been jailed for life under new "two strikes and you're out" legislation brought in to deal with serious offenders.

Maintenance contractor Pearton raped a 13-year-old schoolgirl in his van in a quiet lane off the A259 in Eastbourne.

Before the incident, Pearton, 26, indecently assaulted her near the clock tower on Bexhill seafront, Lewes Crown Court heard.

Pearton, who was jailed for five years in 1994 for holding up the same Ninfield petrol station twice within a month, was sentenced under the new legislation which makes it mandatory for criminals who carry out two serious offences to receive a life sentence.

After hearing that Pearton had carried a gun with him to the raids, Judge Richard Brown ruled his robbery conviction was serious enough to be included under the new powers.

Judge Brown added that Pearton, of Camperdown Street, Sidley, near Bexhill, had shown "no remorse" for raping the girl.

The sex attacker was on duty in his works van when he approached his victim and her 15-year-old friend last September.

The two girls decided to go for a ride with him and drove up to Horam, where Pearton fixed a set of temporary traffic lights.

On the way back they stopped on Bexhill seafront and he indecently assaulted the 13-year-old while her friend was not looking.

Then they stopped at an Esso garage in Eastbourne and while her friend went inside to buy chocolate, Pearton drove off to a secluded lane nearby and raped the girl.

The court heard he told his victim she "didn't want him to get nasty" and had to be a good girl.

"On the way back he said that even if I did tell anybody no one would believe me and he just kept saying he would put me in hospital."

Pearton then gave the pair a lift home and when he drove off the 13-year-old girl burst into tears and told her friend about the attack. Police were called.

Pearton, who was found guilty of rape and indecent assault, told the court the girl had asked him for sex and he thought she was 17 or 18.

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