Carl Marland of The Chequers pub, Ilford, London, was convicted of more than 20 offences in October 2021 after a trial at Manchester Crown Court and jailed yesterday.

Among the charges he was found guilty of were three counts of rape and secretly filming one of the girls while she undressed.

Marland would travel to Manchester from London, where he ran a pub, most weeks from June 2020 to December 2020 to visit the girls – aged from eight to 16 – to carry out his attacks.

He would groom the girls, giving them gifts of clothes and money, as well as drugs and alcohol.

Marland set up a bank account for one of the girls and transferred around £3,000 to her and would drive the girls around in his car, where much of the abuse took place.

Police became aware of Marland when one of the girls’ mothers found inappropriate messages from him on her phone in November 2020.

Detectives from GMP Rochdale’s Child Sexual Exploitation Team worked closely with officers from the Metropolitan Police to co-ordinate Marland’s arrest on 27 January 2021.

In total, Marland was found guilty of the following offences:

Causing a child to watch a sexual act

Sexual assault of a child under 13 x5

Rape of a child under 13 x3

Assault of a child by penetration

Voyeurism x2

Making indecent images of a child x2

Sexual activity with a child x3

Engaging with sexual communication with a child

Causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity x3

Supplying class B drugs x3

Supplying class C drugs