Kevin Hazelwood, 40, of Oriental Place, Brighton, Sussex, was told by Lewes Crown Court that he must serve a minimum of five years and seven months.
Last month he admitted six rapes, two attempted rapes, three sexual assaults and two indecent assaults.
He was on a sex offenders' treatment programme at the time of the attacks.
All of the charges related to attacks on the same girl.
You are a determined and predatory paedophile and you will remain a danger to young girls for the foreseeable future
Judge Richard Hayward
He was also sentenced to a minimum of four years' imprisonment for downloading pornographic images, to run concurrently.
Hazelwood also admitted charges of sexual activity with or in the presence of a child under 13, historic assaults on a girl dating back to the 1980s and making indecent movies of children.
Sentencing him on Thursday, Judge Richard Hayward described him as "cunning and manipulative" and said he had been "unable or unwilling" to control his paedophile urges.
He told Hazelwood: "You gave every indication of complying with the Sex Offenders' Register and there is no reason why a hard-pressed probation officer or anyone else should know anything about it."
He added: "You are a determined and predatory paedophile and you will remain a danger to young girls for the foreseeable future."
Indecent images
His comments came as Home Secretary Charles Clarke said dangerous offenders released on probation would face tougher supervision to prevent them re-offending.
Lewes Crown Court heard how Hazelwood had been placed on the Sex Offenders' Register in October 2002 after pleading guilty at Guildford Crown Court to 20 specimen counts of making indecent pictures of children.
Prosecuting, Gillian Etherton said he had befriended the parents of his nine-year-old victim before using the relationship to "systematically sexually abuse" her.
The abuse started when the girl was aged about six and continued up until two weeks before his arrest in November 2005.
"It would appear from a fairly early stage that the defendant took a keen interest [in the young girl]," Miss Etherton said.
Hazelwood's actions have shocked and repulsed me to the core. He has crushed my world
Mother of nine-year-old victim
She told the court that the abuse came to light when the girl disclosed to her mother what "Uncle Kevin" had been doing.
It also heard that he had taken indecent pictures of the girl and had threatened to send them to her mother if she did not keep quiet about the abuse.
Richard Barton, defending, said Hazelwood was "a man who has urges".
"It is not his fault that he has them but it is his fault that he has acted upon them," he told the court.
Further offences rare
In a statement on Thursday, the girl's mother said: "Hazelwood's actions have shocked and repulsed me to the core. He has crushed my world."
She added that the courage and strength shown by her daughter throughout her ordeal had made her "immensely proud".
Sussex Police and Sussex Probation Area said Hazelwood had been supervised under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) after being convicted of downloading child abuse images.
In a joint statement they said: "It is very rare for offenders managed under Mappa to commit a further offence.
"Only a tiny proportion - around half of one per cent - are charged with a serious further offence."
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How many people must suffer till we take a tougher stance on these "things"?
