A FORMER special police constable who made sickening videos of himself raping and indecently assaulting young girls was jailed for ten years yesterday.

Student teacher Dominic Patrick McCallan, 28, gained the trust of parents by teaching their children judo, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

And police say they fear many more girls may have fallen victim to the evil paedophile, without even realising they had become his prey.

At yesterday's hearing, Judge David Hodson took the unusual step of allowing a video made by McCallan to be shown to the court.

Court staff, barristers and journalists sat in stunned silence as the crimes were shown, while McCallan hung his head and cried.

The video showed several indecent assaults and a rape on three girls aged about ten during a bogus first aid test.

In one attack, the young girl was blindfolded and thought McCallan was taking her temperature with a thermometer when in fact he was raping and indecently assaulting her.

Throughout the girl's ordeal, McCallan, from Medomsley, County Durham, spoke reassuringly to her while taking still photographs and repositioning the video camera.

One of the girls filmed being abused while she slept, did not know of the crime to this day, the court was told.

Prosecutor Beatrice Bolton described how the girls were assaulted as part of a first aid course he set up as part of his role as a judo instructor.

He had groomed each of his pupils in preparation for the videos, giving some of them lines he had scripted.

When police raided McCallan's home, they found 8,000 indecent pictures in his computer taken from 209 pornographic Internet web sites. During a six month investigation police interviewed more than 200 children.

At a previous hearing, McCallan pleaded guilty to one charge of rape, four charges of indecent assault, three of taking indecent photographs, and six of possessing indecent pictures of children.

Sentencing him to 15 years - ten years in custody with a five-year supervision order on his release - the judge said: "I do not think it is an exaggeration to say this is one of the most disturbing cases I have come across in all my years on the bench.

"By deceit and deception you engineered a situation whereby young girls and their parents were tricked into believing you were a responsible person who could give judo instruction to their children."

The judge added: "You are an exceptionally high risk to young girls.

"The effect on those children must be profound. No one can tell what long term damage you have caused them."

He ordered that McCallan should be placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

Gail Hopper, one of Durham County Council's social services managers, said: "We have taken a dangerous man off the streets, who is no doubt, would have gone on to abuse more children."

And Detective Inspector Neil Redhead said he believed the investigation team had even identified the little girl who was to have been his next victim