AN Accrington man has been jailed for 11 years for his part in sexually abusing young girls.

Jerry Lee Howe, 40, of Dunnyshop Avenue, was convicted of three counts against one victim, including rape. He was also given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order to last 20 years.

Another man, Paul Thomas, 50, of Western Way, Basingstoke, Hampshire, was sentenced to 19 years, at Winch-ester Crown Court after being convi-cted of 25 charges involving four girls.

He was also made subject to an indefinite SOPO. The trial heard the attacks took place from the mid-1990s, and stopped only in 2010.

Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, said: “The victims were, the Crown says, sexually abused. They were children, and some of them very young.”

The barrister said the abuse stopped only when the vic-tims reached 16.

She explained that some were very used to the abuse, and ‘they did as they were bid’ as the men attacked them.

The pair abused the victims separ-ately at different times, and in diff-erent locations, including Hampshire and Lancashire, over the years.

Two other men, Paul Flynn, 30, of Bath Road, Reading, and Timothy Pittway, 49, of Mermaid Close, Winn-ersh, Berkshire, were acquitted of all child sexual abuse charges against them by the jury. Thomas was found not guilty of six offences against two victims – one of whom was a boy – and Howe was found not guilty of three charges involving a girl.

Speaking after the case, Detective Inspector Scott Clarke, from Hamp-shire Police, said: “These men system-atically abused and degraded children to the point where their victims felt their ordeal was just a part of growing up. It is down to the courage of these women that these most evil of offen-ders have been brought to justice.

“No-one should have to experience the childhood that these victims did.”