A PAEDOPHILE who filmed himself abusing one of his three young victims was last night starting a jail sentence from which he might never be released.

Craig McLean was branded a significant risk to girls by a judge after a lengthy police investigation brought the 27- year-old to justice.

In September last year, police were alerted by the grandfather of one of the girls.

An examination of the “sophisticated”

set-up of computers, which were linked to cameras, revealed a sickening collection of child abuse pictures and videos.

Police worked to identify victims in the images – others came from the internet – and discovered McLean had been abusing two of them.

Jailing him indefinitely for the protection of the public, Judge Anton Lodge told McLean: “These were shameful and degrading acts.”

Teesside Crown Court heard that McLean, of Barmpton Road, Billingham , near Stockton, told police: “I do have an attraction to little girls.”

He said during an interview: “People get the wrong impression of paedophiles.

It’s not just kids. We do like adults as well. I’d say seven or eight-plus.”

His barrister, Peter Makepeace, said: “It is an unusual feature of this case that Mr McLean has admitted everything that has been laid against him.

“Normally, such cases are marked by blatant denials in the face of often overwhelming evidence. Very often they are marked by a complete inability to see the deviance of which has been spoken and a blindness to the problem that exists in their own psyche.

“Mr McLean is determined to do everything he can, to use every possible assistance he can get, to address this issue so that he never, ever offends again.

“I am specifically asked to express the remorse, shame, regret and apology this man would wish to make to his victims.

He knows the damage is incalculable.”

McLean admitted six charges of sexual assault, one of rape and two of assault by penetration, as well as possessing more than 33,000 indecent images.

The judge said he had seduced and enticed the girls and said: “They will be damaged for life by what you did.”

One of the victims said: “He took pictures of me naked and made it out to be a game. It has all affected me quite a lot.

I am wary around men.”