A PAEDOPHILE from Huddersfield has been jailed for nine years after admitting sexually assaulting four young girls.

Alexander King, 61, of Royds Avenue, appeared at Leeds Crown yesterday to be sentenced for 17 sexual offences.

Prosecutor Stephanie Hancock told the court the offences came to light in June last year when one of the girls told her mum a man was ‘doing something he ought not to’.

Police were informed and King was subsequently arrested and bailed.

Further complaints were made in September relating back as far as 2001.

Ms Hancock told the court that in one of the assaults King took a girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in his car to walk his dogs but drove her to a secluded area and pulled her clothing down and subjected her to a 20-minute sexual assault.

In another incident she said he took a girl to work on his tractor and sexually assaulted her. Ms Hancock said he told another young victim not to say anything or he would stop buying her nice things.

The four victims later gave video statements to police about their ordeals.

One of the girls said in a victim statement she felt “disgusted and violated.”

Defending King, Neil Murphy said his client was “full of remorse” and struggling to come to terms with what he had done. He said he had made serious attempts to end his own life.

But told the court: “His behaviour is an appalling betrayal of trust of the adults who allowed him to care for their children and a betrayal of the children who trusted him.”

Judge Rodney Jamieson, QC, said the offences involved sexual assaults on four children between 2006 and 2011.

He told King: “You told police officers the offending had not taken place. You were bailed and you did not answer your bail.

“But it’s then clear that you made a number of serious attempts to take your own life.

“And when you were rearrested you made significant admissions but you were not as candid as they might have been.

“You expressed the view that the fault of what had happened lay with the victims.”

He said told the court he saw two factors in his favour, his age and his guilty plea.

He sentenced King to nine years custody. He ordered a sexual prevention programme and for him to be on the sex offenders register for life.