John Allen, 63, formerly of St Edmund’s Drive, Emneth, now of Falklands Drive, Wisbech, had denied but was convicted by a jury of ten offences relating between 1994 and 2000 in Wisbech.

During his trial in September at Cambridge Crown Court Allen claimed that the 20 incidents never happened and that the woman, now 27, had fabricated them when she learned that he had received �250,000 compensation from Wisbech Port Authority following an industrial accident in which he lost part of his leg.

She did not report the matter to the police until September 2010 and pursued a formal case in January 2011.

But Judge Jonathan Haworth, sentencing Allen on Friday told him : “It is clear you have no regard for the well being of the complainant. You suggest that these allegations are motivated simply by the greed for money – which I entirely reject.”

He told Allen, whose wife of 23 years and two daughters supported him in court: “You were so confident that you could avoid responsibility that you were quite prepared to acknowledge that something had happened to your wife, although you minimised it, and you were prepared to discuss other sexual liaisons with your psychologist. To this day you have persisted in your denials of these serious offences.”

He added: “Your whole attitude to this offending has been that no-one can touch me. Well, you are going to be touched now.”

The judge sentenced Allen to a total of nine years for one offence of rape, four indecent assaults and five charges of indecency with a child.

The judge said the strongest mitigation for Allen was that a custodial sentence would be more onerous because of his physical condition.

Allen had a serious accident in 2009. He was a marine services supervisor at Wisbech docks, where he had worked for 30 years. He has had ten operations and in February this year underwent surgery to amputate his left leg below the knee.

He was in a wheelchair in the dock but he can also move about on crutches.

The judge also ordered him to sign the sex offenders’ register for life and imposed a sexual offences prevention order for 12 years banning him from having any contact with the complainant or unsupervised contact with a child under 16 without the parents’ knowledge of his convictions.