Ex-Frank Zappa bassist Roy Estrada is jailed for 25 years for child abuse

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.