A SERIAL child abuser who tried to silence a young victim with threatening Facebook messages has been jailed for 22 years.

Robert Singleton raped one young girl and sexually assaulted three others over the course of more than a decade, starting when he was still a teenager himself.

He tried to intimidate his youngest victim on the eve of the trial by sending her anonymous threats through three different Facebook accounts which he set up in false names.

When police traced the messages to an address where he was living he claimed he had been out fishing when they were sent.

Singleton was jailed for 22 years by Judge Simon Carr, who told him he was a dangerous offender who had compounded his abuse by trying to intimidate a vulnerable young girl.

The former taxi driver abused three girls in the 1990s and went on to rape a girl after grooming her for years.

He was also found to possess sickening child abuse images on his mobile phone which confirmed his sexual interest in young girls.

Singleton, aged 34, of Bishops Close, Starcross, denied witness intimidation, rape, four counts of assault by penetration, sexual assault, four indecent assaults, and making indecent images of children.

He was found guilty of all counts at Exeter Crown Court and jailed for 22 years with a six-year extended licence by Judge Simon Carr, sitting at Truro Crown Court.

During a week-long trial the jury heard the allegations started in the 1990s when Singleton sexually assaulted three girls aged ten to 12 when he was still at school.

The remaining allegations involved a girl, now aged 14, whom he abused over a number of years.

He ensured her silence by telling her she would be disowned by her family if she told anyone what he was doing.

She only told her mother after police began investigating the other historic allegations from the 1990s.

Police found eight images of young girls on his phone when they arrested him and later traced threatening Facebook messages back to his girlfriend’s address.

The case was originally listed to be heard in early February but in January the youngest victim received a string of threats via Facebook.

One, apparently from a profile of someone called Emma Birch, said: ’Watch your back, you whore. You deserve what is coming to you. This is not a threat it is a promise.’

The next was in the name of James Tay which said if she went to court ’your mum and dad and you will be killed. Petrol bomb through the front window of ...’. The message gave her full address.

The final message from a profile in the name of Alan Crane backed up the threats. The police established all came from Singleton.

He denied all the allegations and said he had been out fishing on his boat when the threats were sent. He someone else must have used his phone to download the images.