A SEXUAL predator who lured runaway girls with alcohol and cannabis to his flat in Newton Abbot has been jailed for eight and a half years.
Nigel Smith groomed two vulnerable girls and harboured them when they ran away from council run care homes.
They hid at his flat in Newton Abbot where he plied them with drugs and alcohol before sexually assaulting them. He even made a romantic candlelit dinner before carrying out one assault.
His assaults had a catastrophic effect on the two girls, one of whom was left so traumatised she need to be locked up in a secure children’s unit for her own safety.
Both girls were in care of Devon County Council but ran away repeatedly to take refuge with Smith, who told them he loved them and offered them the attention they craved.
One was found by police hiding behind a mattress at his flat in the early hours of the morning after Smith had defied an anti-abduction order which had been issued just days earlier.
They were both traumatised by his abuse and one is now so disturbed she has been moved to a secure unit where she is locked up for her own safety.
Smith, aged 40, of Alexandra House, Queensway, Newton Abbot, admitted three offences of sexual assault on a girl under 13, five counts of sexual activity with a child and two of supplying cannabis. He was jailed for eight years and six months by Judge Graham Cottle at Exeter Crown Court.
He also imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which bans Smith from having any unsupervised contact with children when he is released.
The judge told him: ‘These young and extremely vulnerable girls were groomed and plied with drink and drugs. The consequences for both of them were very serious, as is shown by their victim impact statements.
‘They were made to feel worthless and dirty and went on to self harm. They tended, as children do, to blame themselves for what happened when in fact no blame attaches to them at all. You are responsible for all that.’
Mr Peter Coombe, prosecuting, said both girls were from troubled backgrounds and one introduced Smith to the other when they were both in care at the same home in Devon.
He had sex with the 15-year-old and touched the other girl repeatedly when she was aged 11 to 14. He continued seeing both girls despite being served with child abduction notices by the county council.
Police found one girl hiding behind a mattress in his flat and she said he had given her cannabis and alcohol and shared a candlelit dinner.
One said they had also taken viagra before having sex. The other said she used to stay the night and was also given drink and drugs. He had started touching her when she was only 11.
Mr Coombe said: 'The aggravating features are the use of alcohol and drugs to facilitate intercourse. The younger girl was particularly vulnerable.
'She was extremely young and only 11 when these offences started. She had a long history of being in care. There was clearly grooming and she says he supplied cannabis and alcohol.'
The younger girl wrote a victim impact statement which was read to the judge at her request. She said: ‘My emotional and mental health have suffered. I thought he loved me but I now know this was rubbish.
‘I am not a slag. I am a child but he has made me feel rubbish and worthless. It is not easy to be positive about myself. I could not keep myself safe so I have been locked up in secure accommodation. I am locked up with some children who are criminals. I am finding it really difficult to understand what he did to me and I am still in trauma therapy.
‘I am being treated for anxiety, depression and post traumatic stress disorder. How is it right I should be locked up when it is he who has done this to me?
‘I am the victim. I am a child but I cannot go home. It is as if he is still hurting me because I cannot be a normal child. He has taken my childhood away.’
Mr Rupert Taylor, defending, said Smith had pleaded guilty and spared the girls from having to re-live their experiences in the witness box.
He said: ‘He puts forward no excuse. At the time he was immersing himself in drink and cannabis after his stepson had died in a fishing accident.
‘He allowed himself to be flattered by the attentions of these young girls. He thought it would be all right but of course, it is never all right and he now accepts that.
‘They were both anxious to stay at his home. He accepts he went too far but he did not have any malicious thoughts towards them.’
Smith (pictured) was arrested as part of an ongoing investigation, codenamed Operation Pangram, into child sexual exploitation in South Devon.
After the court case Devon and Cornwall Police stated that for a number of years, children as young as 12 had been exposed to alcohol, drugs and sexual exploitation by a number of suspects. Some victims have been identified and are being supported and safeguarded by police and social services.
Initiatives have been put in place around Newton Abbot and Torbay by the local neighbourhood teams, in partnership with local authorities, to educate and safeguard young people at locations where they gather in a bid to lessen the exposure to this type of offending.
Det Insp Mark Smeaton, of the Local Investigation Team based in Totnes, said after sentence was imposed on Smith at Exeter Crown Court: ‘We take child sexual exploitation offences very seriously as they are a serious threat to young people.
‘We will continue to pursue the perpetrators of these damaging offences and bring them to justice.’
He added: ‘This type of offence has serious and lasting consequences on the young victims, and any successful prosecution, with support from our partnership agencies, is only the first step in actively supporting their futures.’
Det Con Nadine Freestone, of the Ashburton-based Public Protection Unit, said: ‘We would like to thank the female victims for their strength and courage in bringing this matter to the attention of police.
‘The verdict has pleased the victims and it will undoubtedly help them in moving on with their lives.’