A JUDGE has told a paedophile caught in a sting operation he will not be freed from prison until he is a very old man.

Paul Evans, 60, was sentenced to 20 years and three months in jail after he was convicted of a string of sex attacks on young girls in East Lancashire.

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He will also face a five-year extended sentence after a judge ruled he represented an ongoing danger to the public.

Evans was caught out by Kent Police during a series of shocking internet exchanges with undercover officers posing as fellow sex offenders, Burnley Crown Court was told.

The pervert said that sex with children was ‘fantastic’ and they ‘should be able to enjoy it as well’, the court heard.

Prosecutor Tom Lord said Evans went on to describe most normal people as ‘narrow-minded do-gooders’ and criticised the victims of high-profile historical rape allegations, such as Jimmy Savile, for coming forward.

He claimed that although the abuse had happened, the girls in his case wanted it to happen and now ‘just wanted compensation’.

Evans, of Grasmere Avenue, Padiham, admitted two offences of rape, sexual assault of a child under 13, causing a child to watch a sexual act, taking indecent images of a child and distributing indecent images.

He denied two related charges concerning his chat-room confessions to police, based on ‘fantasy’ disclosures about his previous sexual conduct.

But Judge Robert Altham said, while he would not be sentenced for part of his disclosures to the officers, he was entitled to take account of the language used in the correspondence as providing an insight into the defendant’s ‘twisted view’ of child sexual exploitation.

Jailing him, the judge said: “It seems to me that you are a fixated paedophile who has his own distorted perception of the world. That means you are a peculiarly dangerous man.”

The prosecution said he had raped a six-year-old girl and warned her not to tell her parents or teachers about what had happened.

Mr Lord said his second victim was made to sit on the defendant’s forearm for ‘two to five minutes’ as part of a ‘game’, for Evans’ own sexual gratification. The girl later said she felt embarrassed.

Later the same girl was shown a perverted cartoon, featuring a character from the Horrid Henry series, engaged in sexual activity. She told Evans it was ‘weird’ and asked him to turn it off.

His third victim, also aged around six, was lured with the promise of sweets and Evans gave her toffees and a bracelet .

But he then pulled up her dress and molested her while they were alone together.

Evans also forced her to pose for at least four indecent photos, which he took on his mobile phone. He would later share the same images with the undercover officers in Kent, who he believed were fellow paedophiles.

The parents of some of his victims were in court to hear how Evans had also served an eight-year prison sentence after being convicted of serious sexual offences, also including rape, in 1990.

Mr Lord said one of the young victims now ‘wished she was dead’ and had started to self-harm, while another had developed a fear of men.

Jonathan Savage, in mitigation, said: “The defendant recognises the nature of his problems and recognises he needs help to get to the root cause of his offending.”

The defence barrister argued that his client did not merit a life sentence, which ‘should only be imposed as a last resort’ if all other options had been exhausted.

Judge Altham, who also ordered Evans to sign the sex offenders register for life, said the defendant would possibly be aged around 85 when the court’s sentence expired.

Speaking after the case, Det Chief Insp Claire McEnery, head of the Lancashire Dangerous and Sexual Offenders Unit, said: “Offenders like Evans leave a trail of devastation and misery behind them, and we are delighted that the judge has recognised in his sentence the depravity of the acts he committed.”