Former Frank Zappa bassist Roy Estrada has been jailed for 25 years for child abuse.

Estrada, 68, has been sent down for molesting a child younger than 14 over an extended period of time.

A Texas court heard how he abused a female family member after he was released from a California prison for a separate felony offence of committing a lewd act with a child.


“The victim’s family was unaware that he was a convicted sex offender,” Melody McDonald, spokeswoman for the Tarrant County, Texas district attorney’s office, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Estrada was sentenced to 25 years in a plea bargain agreement and is not eligible for parole. He will be 93 years old before he is released from prison.”

Estrada was a member of Frank Zappa’s band, the Mothers of Invention, on and off between 1964 and 1975. He also played in some lineups of the reunited, Zappa-less Mothers in the past decade. Estrada was also a founding member of the band Little Feat in 1969 with Lowell George and performed on the band’s first two albums.