A SEX attacker who started preying on victims when he was just 11 has been put behind bars.
David Spencer targeted a total of seven girls – who were aged as young as just eight – from the late 1990s.
The serial predator pleaded guilty to a total of 26 sexual offences, including indecent assaults and an attempted rape, dating up to 2011.
At Newcastle Crown Court yesterday the 26-year-old was jailed for seven years, banned from working with children for life and ordered to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.
He must abide by the conditions of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order to limit his contact with children for the next seven years.
Judge Simon Hickey told him: “I remind myself I am dealing with a 26-year-old has pleaded guilty, sparing the victims from having to give evidence at any trial, which is very important in sexual allegations.
“In all there are seven complainants, all the girls are aged under 16.
“During the historic offences you were very young yourself and I will bear that in mind.
“You went beyond sexual experimentation and turned to gratification for your own ends and at the expense and grief of the young women involved.
“Your cuplability increases as the number of victims increases. You obviously knew what you were doing was wrong.”
The court heard four victims were targeted during the offending in the late
1990s and early 2000s in Houghton, where he lived at the time.
Most of his victims, who were warned they would not be believed if they told, were repeatedly targeted.
The court heard Spencer’s offending halted in the mid 2000s, but started again in the summer of 2011 when he groomed a group of schoolgirls he let stay over at his flat in Fencehouses.
He had unlawful intercourse with two of them, who were aged 15, and sexually assaulted a 13 year old.
Alec Burns, defending, told the court: “He was 11 or 12 when some of these offences were committed.
“He is still a young person.
“He now understands what he was doing. He accepted all along it was wrong.”
Mr Burns said Spencer, of no fixed address, suffered a traumatic upbringing and spent time in children’s homes and care.