AN evil pervert with “octopus hands” who preyed on his sons and their friend has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.

In an impact statement, one of the man’s victims told the court: “This man is an evil and twisted predator and needs to pay for what he has done.”

Jailing the sick businessman, now in his 70s and living in Wales until he was remanded to HMP Bullingdon, Recorder Barry McElduff noted the abuse had happened in the family home in Swindon.

“It should have been a place where they felt safe, where they felt protected,” he said.

"Each of them described to the court how you would enter their rooms at night, silently and put your hands under the covers."

The defendant, who the Adver is not naming in order to protect the anonymity of his victims, was found guilty in March of four counts of indecent assault but cleared of a fifth count.

Jurors found he had abused his sons and their friend during the 1990s, when the men were teenagers.

The court heard the third man, who had been staying with the defendant after being kicked out the family home, had cut himself off from his friends after the abuse.

He said: “How do you tell your best friend his dad’s a sex offender?”

The defendant had been a successful IT consultant living in Swindon with his family.

He was the “cool dad”, who let his children have whatever they wanted. He was described by one son as a “good dad with this dark side in him”.

The man’s sons told jurors they had been touched beneath their pyjamas – “octopus style” – as they lay in the beds. The boys were aged between 11 and 16.

The older brother told the court: “I still have that horrible feeling now of being able to picture the door handle had hear the footsteps.

"I would wake with his hands in my pyjama bottoms, abusing me, touching me.”

After the dad split from his wife the house became known as a party house.

A friend of the younger son came to stay after he left his own family home aged 16. He said he too had been abused by his host and told his mother at the time but was not believed.

The younger brother sent a text to his siblings in 2008 saying he wanted to talk to them about a secret that could tear the family apart. The abuse was reported to police almost a decade later.

One of the brothers directed his victim statement to his father.

It read: “My childhood will always have the undertones horror you brought in what was meant to be the safest of all environments: the family home.”

Their father had denied the allegations through the trial.

Defence barrister Kevin Seal told jurors: “He has nothing to prove. That’s why he can’t say with any surety why they’ve made these complaints.”

Mitigating, Mr Seal told Swindon Crown Court on Tuesday his client was of previous good character and there had been no allegations against the man since the abuse took place in the 1990s.

The defendant must serve up to half of his six-and-a-half year sentence behind bars. He will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.

Appearing in court via video link from HMP Bullingdon and dressed in a grey t-shirt, he spoke only to confirm his name.

He showed no emotion as he was sentenced.