A DANGEROUS paedophile who preyed on three little girls after hiding his perverted criminal past from their horrified families has been jailed for four years as part of an eight year extended prison sentence.

Scott Huddleston was able to sexually abuse his young victims, aged between six and ten, because their trusting mothers did not know he had been convicted of hoarding and distributing child pornography.

One mother wept bitterly in court as she told how Huddleston had deliberately misled her family, saying he had been in trouble for “cyber crime.”

“I had no reason not to trust him round my children. It has broken my heart knowing what he has done to my little girls,” she said.

Huddleston, 33, formerly of Sunbridge Road, Bradford, sat impassively in the dock at Bradford Crown Court yesterday as the woman told of the devastation his abuse had caused.

A second mother said she felt “utter shock and disgust” when she discovered that a convicted paedophile had been left alone with her daughter, six.

“I could not stop the tears falling. I felt broken,” she stated.

Huddleston pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the three girls in 2014 and 2015. He was subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order after receiving a two year suspended jail sentence at Nottingham Crown Court in 2014 for possessing more than 1,000 indecent images of children as young as three and sharing about 40 of them.

Huddleston was also active on chat rooms where he pretended to be a child.

The court heard he was a chemistry student at the time, isolated, drinking heavily and struggling with his university course. He was imprisoned for two years at Bradford Crown Court in June last year for breach of the Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

In December, he was jailed for an extra four months because he had later been caught with more child porn and a little girl’s knickers at his home.

Prosecutor Michael Smith said Huddleston was released on August 26 this year and two days later, he contacted one of his young victims on Instagram. He was living in a hostel in Bradford Road, Cleckheaton, and bought a phone with internet access.

Mr Smith said Huddleston’s physical abuse of the three girls only came to light when he was in prison.

The children told how he had tried to kiss them and sat them on his lap, making them feel uncomfortable. He lifted up one little girl’s top and pulled down her pants before taking an indecent photo of her.

Huddleston’s barrister, Camille Morland, said he was remorseful and had admitted sexually assaulting the three girls after initially denying the allegations.

“At least he had the courage later on to reflect on his position and to change his pleas,” Miss Morland said.

He hid his criminal past because he was embarrassed about it and now realised his deception had only put temptation his way.

Judge Jonathan Rose told Huddleston: “You are a man of profound perversion. You are a paedophile. You have a sexual interest in children and you are, in my view, a dangerous man as far as children are concerned.”

Judge Rose said the families would not have let him “within a million miles” of their children if they had known he was a convicted paedophile.

Huddleston was jailed for four years and will be closely monitored on his release under the terms of a four year extended licence for dangerous offenders. A Sexual Harm Prevention Order was made, without limit of time, and Huddleston must sign on the sex offender register for life.

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