A WELLINGTON sex offender has been jailed for 14 years after he used a false identity to hide his past and allow him to groom a single mother’s children.

Dominic Purvis was a registered sex offender but presented himself as a successful entertainer when he befriended the mother and went on to abuse three of her daughters.

Purvis was addicted to internet child abuse images which he exchanged with fellow paedophiles around the world and he turned his sexual fantasies into reality when he gained access to the girls aged nine to 11.

He used the false name of Dominic James to hide his true identity and the girls’ horrified mother only learned the truth when he was arrested for downloading yet more internet images.

Chat room messages on his computer showed he shared his sick fantasies online and in a chilling echo of the real life abuse which followed he told one contact ‘I like six to 12 best’.

Purvis targeted the family because the mother was a vulnerable victim of domestic violence who had just split up from her abusive partner.

He offered to stay at her home in East Devon to protect her but instead used his visits to abuse three of her children.

He was a disc jockey and drag artist who used the stage name Teya Sue and sometimes dressed as a woman while visiting the family.

Purvis, aged 47, of Gay Street , Wellington, was found guilty of three offences of distributing and two of making indecent images of children, two of failing to comply with the sex offenders’ register, and eight of sexual assault against three sisters.

He was jailed for 14 years with an extended licence of four years by Judge Erik Salomonsen at Exeter Crown Court.

The mother of the children applauded from the public gallery and shouted ‘rot in hell’ as Purvis was led away. The Judge told Purvis: “The chat logs show you had a sexual interest in children and that you had desires of what you would like to do to young children.

“You used the name of Dominic James rather than Purvis when you met the mother of the young children, who was vulnerable because she had been in an abusive relationship.

“You befriended her and found a job at a local pub, where you used the name of James, not Purvis, and you stayed at her home on numerous occasions.

“You used these to carry out the fantasies which you expressed online by sexually assaulting three girls, taking every opportunity that arose.

“There was deliberate targeting of this family and prolonged offend-ing. The fact that you failed to notify the sex offender’s register that you were staying at this address suggests the previous restrictions did not effectively safeguard children.

“You have no empathy with your victims. Quite the reverse. You suggest they are responsible for your current situation. I must consider the protection of the public and in my judgment you pose a risk to children.”

During a trial last month the mother of the children told the jury she felt physically sick when she learned the truth and described Purvis as ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’.

He abused the girls when they got into bed with their mother and during tickling games. He took secret pictures of one of them as they slept and groped another as she got ready to go to the Devon County Show. He nicknamed one of them ‘my bed buggy’.

He threatened to kill them, their pet dog or their mother if they revealed what he had done and the girls were so terrified they stayed silent until after he was arrested for the internet offences.

Purvis told the jury he did not have any sexual interest in young girls and had never touched any of the sisters inappropriately. He said all the allegations against him were false.

He was on the sex offenders register because he was convicted at Bristol Crown Court in 2006 of possessing indecent images of children.