14 years in jail for child sex fiend

A SEXUAL predator who groomed girls as young as 11 for sex was today starting a 14-year jail sentence behind bars.

Neath Karate Instructor David Gray had conducted a campaign of abuse from which his three victims were unlikely ever to recover, said the sentencing judge at Swansea Crown Court.

"You stole their innocence, their childhood, and you did so in a calculating way," said Judge Michael Burr.

"The victim impact statements make the devastating consequences of your behaviour only too clear."

The court has heard how Gray had sexually abused two young girls in Wakefield, Yorkshire, where he ran a karate club in the 1990s.

One girl had been abused from the age of 11 until she was 14.

He had a sexual relationship with another girl, which lasted from when she was 13 until she reached the age of 18. That girl had a child by him. He then moved to South Wales and engaged in a sexual relationship with a girl aged 13 in 2001 and 2002.

The judge noted: "There is no doubt that for the best part of 10 years you set out to groom for sexual purposes and then abused three young girls from the very early age of 11 in the case of one of them and 12 or 13 for the other two. And this abuse continued throughout their formative years, when they should have been free from any hint or possibility of this kind of behaviour."

Having abused two girls during his time in Yorkshire, he moved to South Wales and obtained a job as a learning support assistant at a school in Port Talbot.

He selected his third victim in the school playground, noted the judge.

"The abuse of all three girls over the whole period of your activities involved sexual intercourse and a number of additional perversions designed to serve your lust," Judge Burr said to him.

"The campaign of abuse continued for years, almost on a daily basis."

Gray, of Morgan's Road, Neath, admitted three counts of rape, 22 counts of indecent assault and four offences involving serious sexual assault.

At the time of his arrest in February of this year the 42-year-old was running his own private karate club in Melin, Neath, known as the Ben-Kai-Do Club.

He has been held in custody on remand since his arrest, at which time he was going by the name of David Cole.

Prosecutor Geraint Walters said a police investigation was launched in February and officers spoke to a woman who said she had been in a relationship with Gray in Yorkshire from the age of 13 and in due course she had a child by him.

She said it had been a consensual relationship, but over time she had realised he had taken advantage of her youth. Another female who had been living in Yorkshire said she had been abused by Gray for three years from the age of 11.

The prosecutor said Gray had subjected her to "systematic daily sexual abuse".

The female said she was angry with him and was pleased the police had approached her as she no longer feared her account would be disbelieved. Police subsequently interviewed another female who spoke of having formed a relationship with him while a pupil at Sandfields Comprehensive School in Port Talbot where Gray had secured a job as a learning support assistant in September 2001.

She told police they had engaged in regular sexual activity, on occasion having sexual relations seven or eight times a day.