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A girl who was sexually abused by a soldier when she was nine used teddy bears to explain to her mum what happened.

L Cpl Michael Keenan, 34, turned himself in after the mother alerted military police, a court heard.

The mum had become suspicious when she saw them together and later asked her daughter if anything was wrong, the Sunday People reports.

Paedophile Keenan ­admitted 10 counts of ­sexual activity and is being held in cells at Colchester Garrison before returning to Germany for sentencing.

The child’s mother said: “She’s just a little girl. She couldn’t find the words to tell me.

“I had to ask her to show me using two teddies. That’s how she told me. I just stood there in tears.”

The woman said Keenan, of Oldham, Gtr Manchester, who served with the 3rd Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, abused her daughter for nine months.

“He’d told her not to tell anyone,” she said. “He told her if she told anyone then the Army would find him and shoot him. He said they’d shoot him and make her watch.

“What sort of twisted man says that to a young girl? And what sort of twisted man does those things to a young girl?”

And the mum is already furious about the sentence she’s been told he can expect.

She said: “I’ve been told he’ll get six years, but that will be reduced to four because of his guilty plea. Then he’ll only serve around half of that.”

She added: “My daughter will have to carry what he’s done for the rest of her life. She already thinks she’s not normal because these things happened to her.

“I’ll always be there to help her and support her. To be fair the Army and their social workers have been great with us. She’s going to be getting therapy and all the help possible – I just pray she can put it all in the past.

The Army said: “We can confirm a serving soldier is scheduled to be sentenced in Germany next month.”