AN evil odd-job man who police say is one of East Lancashire's worst ever child abusers is behind bars facing a long jail term.

Perverted and "sadistic" Stuart Wedge, 46, who has a record for horrific sex attacks and for torturing victims as young as three going back 20 years, claimed his latest innocent victim aged nine in Burnley. Wedge, who has already served a seven-year prison sentence for a catalogue of indecency and cruelty offences, subjected the Burnley boy to a two-year ordeal of physical and mental abuse which left the child traumatised, feeling inadequate and needing help.

Wedge, a married man and father, has lived in Nelson and Burnley for about the past eight years and has also worked as a security guard in the area. Police describe him as clever, manipulative and controlling and say he engineered his way into the boy's family after doing odd jobs.

A court heard Wedge set about degrading, humiliating and belittling the boy in a campaign which included taking a knife to his throat, beating and horsewhipping him, shooting him with a ball bearing gun, cutting off his hair, squeezing his fingers together with pliers, booting him and taping up his nose and mouth. Wedge also daubed abusive names on the child's forehead and took photos of his anguish.

Yesterday Wedge, most recently of Cedar Street, Burnley, admitted 10 child cruelty charges, between March 2003 and April 2005, at Burnley Crown Court. He was remanded in custody until February 24 for a pre-sentence report. Judge Beverley Lunt warned him a lengthy custodial term was inevitable.

Tim Ashmole, prosecuting , said the latest offences came to light after the victim complained to a teacher at his school, she contacted social services and checks revealed Wedge's record for similar offences.

The boy's family was warned about the defendant, police were brought in and the boy was interviewed. At first he did not say a lot but when he was spoken to again last May he revealed all. Wedge was arrested and charged in June last year.

Hugh Barton, defending, said there had been no other convictions or allegations against the defendant since the mid 1980s. The barrister, who said the court should consider a risk assessment, added Wedge was not said to be suffering from mental illness or a personality disorder and a psychiatric report was not being requested.

After the hearing, it was revealed Wedge carried out a sordid six year reign of paedophilia and cruelty against several young children in the Manchester and Stockport areas in the 1980s.

FORMER Detective Inspector Rita Wilkinson, who was then in charge of inquiries but is now retired, came to Burnley to help police in the latest investigation. She described Wedge's behaviour at that time as one of the worst cases of child abuse she had ever dealt with.

In 1983, police told the Evening Telegraph, Wedge was jailed for six months for assault causing actual bodily harm, after beating a four year old boy with a stick.

Between 1983 and 1986 he committed offences against a three year old, which included forcing the boy to sit in front of a fire until he burned and striking him with a cord or flex. The infant suffered injuries to his body and face and was left with scars from the bars of the fire on his bottom.

A year or so later he attacked a little girl with a wooden baton and poked her leg with a steel butcher's knife. Wedge also forced the head of a five year old repeatedly under water and stubbed cigarettes out on his body in the early eighties.

The defendant has five previous convictions, from between 1981 and 1986 for sex assaults on three children - all of them under six.

Detective Constable Julie Monk, of the Accrington-based Public Protection Unit, who is the officer in charge of the Burnley case, said the child, who is now 11, had been traumatised by his ordeal. She sasid: "It has affected him so deeply he has lost trust in people. He is now receiving specialist one to one help."

She added: "The defendant treated this youngster in a depraved, inhumane and degrading manner. He is facing a lengthy prison sentence and the public deserves to be protected from such a vile and sadistic man."

The officer said Wedge obviously got enjoyment from the control he exercised over the boy and probably all his previous victims as well.

DC Monk described Wedge as clever and manipulative and said he had engineered his way into the boy's family.

She added: "I concur with the former DI's comments about the defendant. This is one of the worst cruelty only cases to come before the courts in Burnley."