A "wicked, evil pervert" was jailed for ten years yesterday for raping and assaulting children over three decades.

William McFarlane, 58, admitted 13 charges of rape, sexual assault, and other serious sex offences on the second day of his trial in November.

Newcastle Crown Court had heard that one of his sex attacks left a 16-year-old victim pregnant, and she gave birth to his child.

A further 14 charges were ordered to be left on file after McFarlane admitted the sex attacks.

Judge Guy Whitburn told him: "You are a wicked, evil pervert."

The court had heard how McFarlane abused the girls in the back of his record shop in Jarrow, South Tyneside, and in a cabin when he worked as a security guard in North Tyneside.

McFarlane, now of Parkhead, Glasgow, abused the three children from 1961 until 1986.

McFarlane's wife, Margaret, 56, of Lindisfarne Road, Jarrow, was accused of knowing about the sex attacks, and carrying out her own vicious beatings. But she was cleared when her husband changed his plea.

The court heard how events came to light in 1998 when the children, now in their thirties, made complaints to police.

Defence barrister Jane Waugh said McFarlane "deeply regrets" his actions, and is now a man of ill health.