Nigel Samuel built a ‘party chalet’ at the bottom of his garden in Newton Abbot and fitted it with a bar, television, comfy sofas, and a pool table.

He hosted parties for schoolgirls aged 14 to 17 at which he made sexual suggestions and got them to take their tops off in return for free drinks.

He asked one 14-year-old girl for oral sex and persuaded three girls to kiss each other as he watched.

He sexually assaulted another 14-year-old by touching her breasts in the guise of a massage

He was convicted after the three victims and two of their friends who had been at the parties told a jury at Exeter Crown Court that they thought he was ‘creepy’.

The victims also wrote personal statements telling how his abuse had sparked depression, anxiety, and caused them problems in later sexual relationships.

One said: ‘He had the power as an older man and twisted it. I felt betrayed that he could have done something like this when we were at such a vulnerable age.’

Another said she is so embarrassed that she has still not told her parents the truth eight years after being abused. She wrote: ‘I feel very embarrassed and almost feel like blaming myself.’

The third said: ‘What happened to me never really goes away. The abuse has become part of my identity and will stay with me.

‘I have had this hanging over me for years and it is important the sentence reflects the ongoing effect on me.’

Samuel, aged 61, now of Market Way, Chudleigh, denied but was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault against one girl and two of inciting a child to sexual activity against two others.

He was found not guilty of nine other charges.

He was jailed for nine years by Judge Neil Davey, QC, and put on the sex offenders’ register for life.

He told him: ‘You built a chalet which was designed as a place to relax and have fun with a pool table, television, furniture and a well-stocked bar.

‘The girls went there for parties and you regularly made sexually inappropriate comments. You persuaded one to kiss two of the others when they were disinhibited by the drink you had been happy to provide.

‘The personal statements of the three girls have been read in open court and they show that the psychological damage you caused was significant.

‘It was all caused when you decided to treat these young girls as your own sexual playthings.’

Miss Heather Hope, prosecuting, said all the offences happened in the 2010s but only came to light when one of the girls went to the police in 2019.