A thug who told a terrified 16-year-old girl he would dismember her as he held her captive has been jailed for eight years.

Sadistic Andrew Delsol subjected the vulnerable Carlisle teenager to almost a week of terror - less than three years after he was released from a 15-year jail sentence for torturing a former lover with a blowtorch.

Senior police officers yesterday welcomed the sentence, saying it was near to the maximum available to the judge.

Delsol, 38, formerly of Arum Street, Canterbury, Bradford, showed no emotion as Judge John Phillips passed sentence at Carlisle Crown Court, telling him: "I regard you as a real, serious and continuing danger to women."

Delsol earlier admitted several offences against the Carlisle teenager - two assaults, one unlawful wounding, making a threat to kill her, and falsely imprisoning her for six days.

He met his victim by chance in a park, the court heard.

After setting up home in the city last year, he quickly began to dominate her. The girl regarded him as a good friend.

He made her recite sick fantasies, including a false claim that she was sexually abused by her mother.

By January 13 of this year, Delsol's already bizarre behaviour turned sinister as he held her captive for six days, forcing her to endure a catalogue of threats and violence which included:

l smashing her nose with his hand till the bone cracked

l inflicting a knife wound to her neck

l kicking and punching her stomach.

l hurling her head-first into a wall

l beating her with a length of wood.

Cumbria Police and social services officers made strenuous efforts to protect her, even instigating court proceedings, but the teenager refused to see social workers without being chaperoned by Delsol.

In one terrifying episode, he brandished an axe, saying he would use it to dismember her. The girl eventually escaped on January 19.

Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, mitigating, said: "It's not a case of the defendant seeking out a young girl as prey.''

The girl, he said, was now putting the experience behind her. His client's guilty pleas were a sign of his maturity.

Inspector Michelle Skeer said police were aware of Delsol's gruesome history but had no power to stop the 16-year-old associating with him.