A "VILE" paedophile who sexually abused five girls by playing sick games of chance with them has been jailed for 16 years.

Derek Evans, 70, forced his young victims to draw pieces of paper out of a hat and to take part in his own perverted version of postman's knock to decide what form of sex assaults they would suffer.

Evans, of Ranelagh Avenue, Ravenscliffe, Bradford, groomed the children with sweets, cigarettes and cider and brainwashed them into thinking they would not be believed if they told anyone.

He tried to rape one girl and abused his victims in front of one another, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Evans was convicted of a total of 13 offences by a jury at Bradford Crown Court.

They included one attempted rape, seven charges of indecent assault and five counts of indecency with a child.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on one allegation of attempted rape and Judge David Hatton QC ordered a not guilty verdict to be recorded.

The abuse took place between 1982 and 1990 when three of the girls were aged under ten and two were under 13.

Sentencing him on Thursday, Judge Hatton said Evans was "an offender of particular concern".

He will not be automatically released at the halfway stage of his sentence and could stay behind bars for the full 16 years if the Parole Board does not think it safe to let him out any earlier.

Judge Hatton said Evans' behaviour was vile, playing games with the girls purely for his own sexual gratification.

Victim personal statements from the complainants, now in their 30s and 40s, told of their ongoing suffering.

One woman struggled with self confidence and had turned to drink. She was over protective as a parent and often felt low.

A second suffered flashbacks. She had also turned to drink and put up barriers with her partners. She told of developing "an old head on young shoulders" when growing up.

A third woman did not like to be touched. She was emotionally numb and suffered from depression and anxiety, while another victim suffered nightmares and had overdosed on anti-depressants.

During the trial, prosecutor Nick Adlington said Evans made the girls play sexually-themed games. One involved picking small pieces of paper from a hat, each describing a sexual act to be carried out.

Another game was postman's knock when Evans would tap on a door and the girls would have to perform, or submit to, a sexual act that correlated with the number of knocks.

Although some of the complainants had told close relatives about the abuse over the years, Evans was not arrested until last year after one woman went to the police.

Evans' barrister, Kitty Colley, said: "It is inevitable that a lengthy custodial sentence must follow."

She told the court Evans was in poor health and, now aged 70, he would not know the date he would be released from prison.

She added the passage of time since the girls were abused had allowed him to rehabilitate himself. He had not committed any similar offences in the almost 30 years since.

Evans must sign on the sex offenders' register indefinitely and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order prohibits him from any unsupervised contact with girls under 16.

After the case, Sergeant Daniel Bates, of Bradford District Police, said: "Evans preyed on the vulnerability of his young victims and subjected them to sexual abuse.

"We would like to thank them for their courage in coming forward and reporting his crimes. We hope that today's outcome will give them some closure and allow them to move forward with their lives.

"We also hope it will encourage other victims of sexual abuse, who have not yet come forward, to speak with our specially trained officers at the Bradford District Safeguarding Unit. They will investigate each report sensitively and thoroughly to bring perpetrators to justice."