FORMER soldier Peter Derek Jones was today starting seven life sentences for sex crimes against children in a reign of terror which spanned three decades.

His victims, now mostly in their 30s, wept with joy as a jury convicted Jones, dubbed "a sexual predator", of offences against them when they were young children.

After the case they spoke of their relief that the jury had dismissed claims that they were liars and part of a conspiracy against Jones.

During the two week trial at Chichester Crown Court, Jones, 44, had denied five charges of rape, two of serious sexual assaults on females, four of serious sexual assaults on males, five of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child.

Yesterday he was found guilty of all 17 charges involving four women and two men who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Judge Anthony Thorpe passed life sentences for the rapes and both counts of serious sexual offences against women.

Jones, of no fixed address, was also given concurrent prison terms of eight years for each offence of serious assaults on the males and five years for each indecency offence.

He told Jones: "All right-thinking people will be appalled to hear that one man can cause such misery.

"I am satisfied that you are such a danger acting as a sexual predator, preying on the young and vulnerable, that there is no alternative to the sentences of life imprisonment."

The court had heard how Jones began committing offences when he was just 14. They continued until the 1990s, when one of his victims finally had the courage to contact police. Others gradually came forward.

Jones was arrested and charged but when he was given bail he tried to escape justice and went on the run.

But thanks to the persistence to one of his victims, his photograph was shown on Crimewatch. Just 90 minutes later he was arrested at an address in London.

Judge Thorpe told him he would not be considered for parole until he had served a minimum of ten years.

Former Sussex CID officer Geoff Stafford, who led the investigation, said after the hearing: "He got everything he deserved."

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