A MOTOCROSS rider who sexually assaulted a four-year-old girl has been jailed.

Oliver Sandifordsmith, aged 28, cried in the dock as he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

He denied sexual assault but a jury at Bolton Crown Court found him guilty.

The court heard that Sandifordsmith assaulted the girl in June 2014 while she was at his home, in Martin Avenue, with her parents and his next door neighbour.

Sandifordsmith’s saliva was found in the girl’s knickers after they were sent away for DNA analysis.

Ramzan Mohammed, defending, claimed that Sandifordsmith would “habitually” put his dog’s ball in his mouth and claimed that the girl’s mother knowing this rubbed the ball on a spare pair of her daughter’s knickers.

The defence also claimed that the victim’s mother did this as an act of revenge against Sandifordsmith, who had posted a video of her partner on Facebook three years earlier.

In his summing up, Judge Timothy Clayson told the court that Sandifordsmith said he had been showing the victim’s father and his neighbour his motocross bikes in his garage.

He claimed that while in the garage he had put his dog’s ball in his mouth to “stop the dog jumping up”.

The court heard that Sandifordsmith had then gone upstairs to get teddy bears to give to the victim’s mother for her daughter, when the little girl followed him upstairs.

It is at this point that he sexually assaulted her.

The defence claimed that while Sandifordsmith was upstairs he had left the dog’s ball on a table downstairs and the victim’s mother had rubbed it on a spare pair of her daughter’s knickers.

In character references read out in court by Judge Clayson, Sandifordsmith was described as an “honest, trustworthy, reliable and respectful man” who had a very successful career.

Judge Clayson said: “This offence is extremely wrong and he has made the parents’ distress so much greater by how he has chosen to defend himself.”

Sentencing Sandifordsmith he added: “This offence took place when she was in your home as a guest.

“There is an element of breach of trust because she would have felt comfortable around you because of the friendship between you and her parents.

“You fabricated lies and made false allegations against the victim’s mother which exacerbated her distress.”

In the public gallery a female family member cried and screamed out “no no no” as the sentence was passed.

Sandifordsmith said “I love you” to his family as he was led from the dock.

He will serve half of his sentence in custody and half on licence. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.