A PENSIONER will remain behind bars until his late eighties after being convicted of abusing three children in a harrowing campaign.

Robert West, 67, from Colchester, was arrested in March 2020 amid an investigation into offences which date back to the 1980s and continued into the early 2000s.

Two of West's three victims were teenage girls at the time, with one telling the police she had been repeatedly sexually abused by him.

Another of the victims gave birth to a child while she was still a teenager and it was only then her abuse came to an end.

Gazette: Sickening - some of the offences took place in ColchesterSickening - some of the offences took place in Colchester (Image: Newsquest)

A jury at Ipswich Crown Court heard DNA tests decades after the birth found West was the father.

West, of Whitehall Road, Colchester, denied rape, four offences of indecently assaulting a child and two offences of indecency with a child, all non-recent.

But the jury unanimously convicted the retired builder of all seven crimes in April and he was jailed for 21 years on Wednesday.

Speaking following the sentencing, one of the victims said: “This has been a very painful process for myself and my family in ways I perhaps would not have imagined.

Gazette: Jail time - Robert West was jailed for 21 years at Ipswich Crown CourtJail time - Robert West was jailed for 21 years at Ipswich Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

“Relationships that I held dear have been irreparably damaged, and hurtful true colours shown by those I only knew as close family.

“Those that knew the truth but decided to lie and protect a predator and rapist.

“The true reasons for this I’m sure will allude me and never make sense.”

The other two victims thanked Essex Police and Synergy Essex for support provided to them.

Gazette: Sentencing - Ipswich Crown CourtSentencing - Ipswich Crown Court

During the trial, prosecutor Edward Burge said West told one of them “no-one would believe her if she told anyone about it and that it was their secret”.

Mr Burge said West exploited one of the victims who fell into the bottom 15 per cent of the population in terms of her IQ.

“That made her particularly vulnerable to abuse of this sort, a factor exploited by the defendant in that he groomed her over time,” he added.

West will be 88 years old upon his release from prison if he serves the full sentence.