A BOLTON paedophile who committed a string of sex attacks on a young girl has been handed an extra month behind bars for wasting top judges' time.

Nicholas West, 60, got away with what he had done for years and the victim was an adult by the time she plucked up courage to go to the police.

He was found guilty of abusing the girl and jailed, but later had his convictions overturned on appeal.

However, following a retrial at Bolton Crown Court in November 2015, he was convicted of five counts of indecent assault and four of indecency with a child.

West, of Elmwood Grove, Farnworth, Bolton, was put behind bars for nine years.

Mr Justice Gilbart, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court, today heard him argue that he had been wrongly convicted for a second time.

But this time his challenge backfired, and the judge, sitting with Lord Justice Treacy and Sir John Griffith Williams, rejected his complaints.

Instead the court ordered West to serve an extra 28 days in jail for trying their patience with his hopeless appeal.

West moaned that the credibility of his victim had been undermined and that the trial judge's summing up to the jury was unfair.

But Mr Justice Gilbart told him: "We disagree - it was scrupulously fair."

He also complained that his defence had been compromised because his barrister had to go off on maternity leave shortly before the trial.

But the judge said his new barrister had two weeks to prepare and he had not been disadvantaged.

West also claimed that the jury's guilty verdicts were "inconsistent" with his acquittal on other charges.

But throwing out his appeal, the judge ruled: "There are no arguable grounds that these convictions are unsafe.

"We consider that this application was totally without merit."

West had an extra 28 days tacked on to his sentence for wasting judicial time.