A former Lincolnshire councillor accused of raping a nine-year-old girl admitted touching her after a game to guess the colour of her underwear.

Phillip Leivers, 79, the former manager of the Hammersmith Apollo Theatre, claimed he met the girl after she felt unwell at the cinema and walked her home.

Leivers started letting her into the venue to see bands and films for free – and she would visit him in his office.

The jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court heard Leivers claim he'd only touched the youngster on two occasions, the first when she was 11 or 12-years-old.

Leivers said "It was when she was starting at secondary school. She came in her school uniform and she did look lovely. She really was a very pretty girl. It was a brown uniform, with a brown skirt and everything, and I said 'I suppose you've got brown knickers on as well'".

"She said no, and I said they must be dark blue, and she said no, and then I said maybe white, and she said no."

"I said 'well you'll have to show me then', and she did." Leivers claimed the game continued as he touched the girl.

He said "I felt extremely embarrassed, I said 'you'd better get on home', I thought no one will believe that happened. We got on extremely well. I did see myself as a bit of a father figure actually."

Leivers said he had only one other physical encounter with the girl. She turned up at his house early in the morning on a hot summer's day a few years later – and they took a shower together.

Ian McLoughlin, prosecuting, said "You gave her tickets and sweets and money, what did she have to give you in return for that?"

Leivers replied "Nothing, she was a lovely girl and I can't believe she's gone into the witness box to say there was sexual intercourse."

He denied having sexual intercourse or oral sex with the victim, but admitted inciting her to touch him sexually on two occasions when she was 11 or 12. He claimed their contact was all consensual.

Christopher Geeson, for Leivers, said "He accepted from the start of these proceedings he was guilty of indecency with a child, he offered pleas to two counts but those pleas were rejected by the prosecution."

The alleged victim said in a statement she was sitting at home watching a BBC News broadcast when she saw Leivers as a councillor talking about wind turbines being built in his district. She went to the police.

Leivers, who represented Chapel St Leonards on East Lindsey District Council, resigned from his post following allegations in October last year.

Leivers, of Maplebeck, Sea Bank Road, Skegness, Lincolnshire, denied seven counts of rape, seven counts of indecent assault and five counts of indecency with a child.

Leivers was convicted of three counts of indecency with a child by a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court. He was acquitted of seven counts of rape, four counts of indecent assault and a further count of indecency with a child. The jury was unable to reach verdicts on three further counts of indecent assault and one count of indecency with a child.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) chose not to seek a re-trial, however, following the death of the complainant, aged 49, from a brain haemorrhage at the start of this year. Without the complainant, the CPS were not able to put 'compelling evidence' before a jury, Ian McLoughlin, prosecuting, told Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday.

Sentencing Leivers at the court, Judge Grace Amakye said "During the trial I formed the views that it must have been apparent to you as an adult at the time aged some 30 years that she was an uncared-for child, with that knowledge you embarked on the conduct which can only be described as grooming."

He continued "The jury convicted Mr Leivers on his own admission, had the prosecution accepted those two counts at the beginning of the case and Mr Leivers been sentenced he would by now be well on his way to serving the full custodial element."

He added that Leivers had no other convictions, and that no other complainants came forward in light of the case.

"He firstly was a good man and carried on over a period of 35 years since this offending being a law abiding citizen." he said. "He's worked as a councillor for no remuneration, but for the benefit of his community."

Leivers joined East Lindsey District Council in 2003, before resigning in 2013.