A PAEDOPHILE ex-postman has been jailed for nine-and-a-half years for a string of “vile” sex crimes against vulnerable young girls.

And Peter Stafford-Simpson went to jail with stinging criticism from a judge.

Judge Rodney Jameson QC said one of the most distressing aspects of the trial was watching a now young woman “struggling to cope to relive the ordeal” that she had been turned into a virtual “child prostitute” by Stafford-Simpson.

Stafford-Simpson, 48, lured young girls to perform sex acts on him by offering them cash and alcohol. He later asked them to urinate in a jar and his mouth, the court heard.

He was sentenced yesterday at Leeds Crown Court for committing 18 sexual offences against teenage girls between 2006 and 2011 including sex with a child.

He had earlier been cleared of three counts of raping a 15-year-old girl.

Stafford-Simpson, of Fenton Road, Lockwood , claimed throughout the trial it was a case of mistaken identity, saying he had never even met any of the six girls who later gave evidence revealing his crimes.

But the judge told him: “These were despicable crimes. You were throughout a mature man and they involved seven different victims, six of them children.

“They were crimes carried out with breathtaking selfishness and an utter lack of scruples.

“The consequences of your repeated acts were devastating for many of your victims.

“You are either utterly dishonest in your denials to the police and court or entirely in denial.”

Prosecutor Rob Miers had told at the trial how one of the girls became ‘infatuated’ by Stafford-Simpson and he had sex with her knowing she was only 15.

He said he later gave her a card on her 16th birthday saying: “You’re legal now.”

He repeatedly met the girl at a workers’ shelter in Paddock and took with him bin bags to lie on and had sex with her.

She fell pregnant by him and had an abortion, the court heard during the trial.

The judge said: “Before long, the nature of your offending became more serious. You told the children that it was time for them to do more.

“You offered money to both girls for them to perform sex acts on you.”

He said Stafford-Simpson had later played on a victim’s vulnerability ‘solely to exploit his own interests.’

“You employed the same techniques in bribing these girls to watch what you did, but your practises showed signs of increasingly perverted acts.”

He said there was overwhelming evidence that Stafford-Simpson – who had a previously clean record – was an offender and his ‘ludicrous’ explanation that he lost his phones when explicit messages were sent to young girls was how he was finally revealed as the sex offender.

The court heard how in at least one incident he stripped naked in a ginnel and danced about with a MP3 player between his legs and headphones in his ears.

The court heard crucial evidence from his six mobile phones linked him to the victims with more than a thousand contacts in a three-month period.

He also had the numbers for the girls stored in his phones and the taxi companies which he used to get to Paddock had records of his bookings under his real name.

Further evidence was heard how Stafford-Simpson was spotted in Lockwood dressed as a postman by two of the victims, nearly two years after their ordeal in Staincliffe Park, Dewsbury, when he had performed a sex act in front of them.

The judge ordered Stafford-Simpson to register as a sex offender and imposed a life-time ban on working with children.

And he insisted that due to the danger posed by Stafford-Simpson, he would be subjected to an extended licence period for three years after his release.

After the case Det Con Adrian lever praised the courage of the victims.

“I hope the conviction of Peter Stafford-Simpson for serious sexual offences brings some closure for the victims who have suffered a traumatic experience.

“They showed courage in coming to court to give evidence which has led to Stafford-Simpson’s conviction.”