The country’s top judge has been asked to cut the time an elderly rapist must spend behind bars - after being told he has “potentially been given a death sentence”.

Alan Charles Foulkes, 72, was jailed for 19 years at Chester Crown Court in November last year, having been convicted of multiple sex offences, including a series of rapes.

Foulkes, of Launceston Close, Winsford, began preying on his victim when she was as young as seven, London’s Appeal Court heard.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas, and four other senior judges heard that Foulkes left his victim “zombified” and “programmed to consent”.

But pleading for a sentence cut, Peter Moss, for Foulkes, told Sir John that Foulkes’ might well not live to see the end of his sentence.

“This is potentially, for this man, a death sentence. I ask, are we locking up older people for too long generally?” the barrister said.

“He is 72 and 19 years, we submit, is too long”.

Sir John reserved the court’s judgment on Foulkes’ appeal and will give his ruling at a later date.