A Budleigh Salterton paedophile, who used a mixture of fear and threats-to-kill to silence his young victims, has been jailed by Judge Graham Cottle for 21-and-a-half years.

Budleigh Salterton paedophile Tommy Dance was today jailed for 21-and-a-half -years for a string of rape and sexual offences against underage girls.

Adrian Dance – known locally as Tommy – of Queens Road, Budleigh, was on Friday afternoon sent to prison by Judge Graham Cottle after Exeter Crown Court heard he committed a ‘gross breach of trust’ against girls as young as 11.

The court was told how depraved Dance used a mixture of fear and threats-to-kill to silence his terrified young victims.

One youngster was abducted by Dance, held against her will and raped as she pleaded for her freedom.

Dance’s five victims were all in court to hear the pervert sentenced.

Judge Cottle said Dance’s sex crimes spanned back 30 years.

The court heard how the defendant raped and indecently assaulted the underage girls over a period of years, going back as far as 1985 – with his most recent abuse against young girls being carried out between May 2002 and April 2004.

The paedophile had earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of raping an underage girl between October 1985 and October 1988.

He also admitted seven counts of indecently assaulting two girls under the age of 14.

Dance pleaded guilty to committing two acts of gross indecency with children and one charge of indecently touching an underage girl.

An allegation he raped a woman in November 1979, two charges of indecently assaulting an underage girl between July 1981 and July 1985 and an attempt to indecently assault a girl under the age of 14 in March 1989, all returned not guilty pleas from Dance and were ordered by Judge Cottle to remain on file.

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