A KARATE instructor who seduced a vulnerable 13-year-old pupil and had regular sex with her was starting an eight-year jail sentence today.

Jaspal Riat met Dana Baker when she was a 13-year-old pupil at his Birmingham karate school.

Over the course of the next year, the 48-year-old seduced the teenage virgin into having a full sexual relationship with him.

Tragically, after the relationship ended Dana – described as being “particularly vulnerable” – took her own life in March, aged just 16.

Riat had denied two charges of raping the Stourport schoolgirl, one charge of sexual assault and eight of sexual activity with a child.

The charges were dated between February 2008 and May 2009.

He was cleared of the rape allegations and of the final charge of sexual activity with a child but convicted by a jury of the eight other charges.

Yesterday, sentencing Riat at Gloucester Crown Court, Judge Jamie Tabor QC said there was no direct link between the abuse and her eventual death, but he had no doubt that Riat’s actions had contributed to Dana’s previous suicide attempts.

Judge Tabor said that Riat had identified Dana as a lonely child from a “vulnerable” and unhappy family background, which he had exploited for his own sexual purpose.

“For several months you used her in a thoroughly selfish and indeed despicable manner,” he said.

Judge Tabor said that Riat had eventually lost interest in Dana, who believed herself to be in love with him, abandoning her in a “dishonourable and callous” fashion.

“She desperately needed your support and you abandoned her,” he said.

After a previous suicide attempt, Dana told police she had told Riat what she was planning, but instead of trying to stop her, he had told her: “Thank you for sacrificing yourself for me.”

The judge lifted a previous ruling that Dana should not be identified after an application by the Worcester News.

During the trial, the jury heard that Dana’s parents Trevor and Patricia Baker had been aware of their daughter’s relationship with Riat, allowing her to stay overnight at his home.

After Dana confided in a school nurse about her relationship with Riat she was placed in foster care.

After the hearing Mrs Baker said: “I just hope that man rots in hell.

“He deserves far worse than he has got. It’s been terrible having to sit there and listen to everything he did to Dana.”

Dana was one of Riat’s most successful students at KAMA (the KoshinRyu Academy of Martial Arts), representing Great Britain at the WUKO World Junior Karate Championships in 2008.

A pupil of Stourport High School and Sixth Form Centre, she was training for her black belt at the time of her death.

Defence counsel David Mason QC told the court Riat, who did not give evidence in court, was of previous good character.

Riat, of Denewood Avenue, Handsworth Wood, Birmingham, was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life and was also banned for life from working with children.