A CONVICTED sex attacker who preyed on women for almost half a century has been jailed for 12 years.
John Cairns had already served a ten-year sentence after he attempted to rape one woman and tried to strangle another during street attacks in 1966. He committed his first offence in 1953.
Cairns had been due to stand trial at Newcastle Crown Court in January on charges of rape, indecent assault and indecency with a child.
But the Crown Prosecution Service accepted his guilty pleas to indecent assault, indecency with a child and having unlawful sex with a seven-year-old girl.
Cairns, of Winskill Road, South Shields, on Tyneside, was jailed for 12 years, with a further five year period of supervision to follow.
Defence barrister Christopher Gumsley admitted Cairns had "beliefs which are wholly sexually deviant", but said he wanted to address those issues in prison.
Cairns be on the sex offenders' register for the rest of his life
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