A CHILD rapist who was effectively jailed for life in 2010 for sex attacks on eight young girls has been given four years for more similar offences.

Neil Wells was coming up for parole in the summer but that was thrown out after he admitted abusing two more girls, one of whom went on to attempt suicide.

The 53-year-old will still be able to apply for release again in two years time, the earliest he could possibly ask again.

Kerry Barker, prosecuting, said the first girl was just 12 when she visited the home of the former local DJ, along with other youngsters from the area. “It would appear it was an open house. He would provide them with alcohol and cigarettes and introduce them to pornography,” Mr Barker said.

Wells would talk to the youngsters about sex and then molest them and encourage them to touch him, which took place more than five times with the girl.

He let it be known that when the schoolgirl, who was in year seven, next visited she must sleep with him, which took place when she was 12 or 13 years old.

In her personal statement read to the court the victim, now a woman in her twenties, said she had tried to take her own life as a result of the abuse.

She said “What he did to me affected my whole life since and has continued to do so. His abuse was the first sexual experience I had encountered at that time.”

In the years since she said she had self harmed, attempt suicide, and abused alcohol and drugs to block out what happened to her.

A second woman told how she visited the Wells home between the ages of eight and 12 and she too was abused. She said her family had been quite close to Wells and she was a frequent visitor to the property.

“His household was one where this sort of behaviour was normal, no matter what age. I feel like he abused the trust of me and my family,” she said in her victim statement.

When she said she was going to tell her mum about what he had done he said not to, adding ‘there would be trouble’, if she did.

As a result of the abuse she had also suffered stress and found certain medical processes problematic.

Wells, formerly of Newton Way, Penhill, Swindon, pleaded guilty to two counts of gross indecency with a child and two of indecent assault. Three of the counts related to one girl and the final one against other and took place between September 1998 and Boxing Day 2001.

Chris Smyth, defending, said that regardless of the latest sentence Wells will only be released when the parole board think it is safe. He said Wells, who is serving on the Isle of Wight, had now made admissions to what he had done in the past both in relation to the earlier matters and the latest complaints. The parole board had rejected his application to be released in late August this year, he said, and regardless of a new sentence he could not ask again for two years.

Judge Robert Pawson said he had to consider what the sentence would have been had the new matters been sentenced at the same time as the earlier matters.

He said “It is not unusual, indeed it is common, for victims in cases like this whose lives have been ruined, and I don’t think that is putting it too highly in this case looking at the first victim, for them to take years to come forward in cases like this.

“That is not in any way the victims’ fault, it is a direct consequence of the offences you carried out on children.

“Neither victim has anything to reproach themselves for at all. They were children. Your abuse inevitably affected them very seriously.

“We all react differently to this type of trauma in our life. It is testament to their courage that they came forward at all.”

Wells was given the indeterminate sentence with a tariff of nine-and-a-half years in 2010 after he was convicted of abusing eight young girls. He was found guilty after trial of 43 sexual offences against eight underage girls, including 10 counts of rape, from 1995 to 2007.