A STRATHFIELDSAYE man, who claimed his step-granddaughters ‘‘dobbed him in’’ for raping and abusing them over a period of 10 years, was sentenced to nine years’ jail this week.Kelvin Hards, 76, pleaded guilty in Bendigo County Court to two counts of rape and six representative counts of performing an indecent act.Judge Carolyn Douglas told the court that between 1995 and 2007, Hards sexually abused both girls, fondling them when they were left in his care.On two occasions, one of the girls was raped. Hards later told police he ‘‘loved them too much’’. Both girls were first abused when aged five and six.Judge Douglas said Hards became involved in the lives of his step-grandchildren when his stepson’s marriage dissolved. Alone with his own son and two daughters, Wards’ stepson relied on his mother and stepfather to help care for his children. Judge Douglas said the three children spent many weekends with their grandparents and the indecent assaults first occurred in their home in the winter of 1995, when the older granddaughter was six years old.Judge Douglas said Hards asked his granddaughter to sit on his knee. The court was told Hards rubbed his granddaughter’s genitals over her underwear, but stopped when she jumped off.The court was told on other occasions the granddaughter was made to hold her grandfather’s penis.Judge Douglas said similar incidents happened elsewhere around the home over the course of the next 10 years.On two occasions, Hards raped the then eight-year-old elder granddaughter, before telling her not to tell anyone about the incidents.The court was told that when the girls were aged 17 years and 15 years, they confided in their mother, who contacted police.Neither girl knew the other had been assaulted.Judge Douglas said Hards at times told different police officers he was only engaging in ‘‘petting,’’ and found that ‘‘one day it just started happening’’.He told police he knew his actions were wrong, but insisted his victims should have contacted police earlier, if they felt it necessary.A victim impact statement tendered to the court from the elder granddaughter, now 19 years old, heard she had suffered ‘‘a lot of emotional trauma’’.‘‘I wonder how I’m still here,’’ she writes.Suffering nightmares and flashbacks to the assaults, she told the court she gets bad memories if people tap her on the shoulder.‘‘I’ve missed out on so much already . . . my whole childhood was taken from me,’’ she said.A victim impact statements from the younger granddaughter was read out in the court at the 16-year-old’s request.‘‘I hate him for it. I want my childhood back,’’ she said.Judge Douglas said Hards had operated deliberately and under a ‘‘breach of trust,’’ describing the victims as ‘‘vulnerable young girls’’.Hards’ wife and several family members wept as he was sentenced to jail.The two victims, together with other family members, sat elsewhere in the court.Wards will be eligible for parole in six years. He has been registered as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.