A 62-YEAR-OLD man who carried out an appalling catalogue of rapes and sex assaults on children has been jailed for 15 years.

David Forster indecently assaulted three girls and left them needing treatment for depression in adulthood because of the devastation he caused.

At Teesside Crown Court yesterday, Judge Peter Armstrong told him: "The rape of a child is one of the most serious offences in the criminal catalogue. I have to sentence you for a catalogue of the most appalling offences over a considerable period of time.

"The effects on these three girls have been considerable, each suffering in their own way.

"The description of these offences can only appal the most right-thinking person."

The jury heard how Forster would often beat his young victims.

The court was told that some of the assaults dated back to 1969 and took place on girls as young as six, who he would get to engage in sex acts on him.

Alexia Zimbler, prosecuting, told the judge if the girls tried to resist his advances he would call them "frigid".

On one occasion, in March 1974, he indecently assaulted a girl.

Miss Zimbler told the court: "She said to him 'Get off me' and tried to push his head away, but he continued to touch her."

Forster, formerly of Peterlee, east Durham, also raped girls as young as seven. One victim told him she would kill him if he ever touched her again.

Forster, now of Harper Bungalows, Wheatley Hill, County Durham, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault and two specimen counts of rape.

He was ordered to register as a sex offender for life and was banned from working with children.

Two of his victims were in court to see their attacker jailed and one was visibly upset by the proceedings.

Chris Prince, mitigating, said his client had tried to commit suicide while in prison, had been attacked by other inmates and was now in solitary confinement.

Mr Prince said that Forster had no clear memory of carrying out the attacks, but he accepted what he had done.