A KIDDERMINSTER man who raped two girls has been jailed for 11 years.

David Hardman, aged 45, appeared in Hereford Crown Court yesterday.

He was charged with two rapes, one sex assault, one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, a further serious offence against a child, two charges of taking indecent photographs of a child and another three of possessing indecent photographs of a child.

The former resident of The Peacock Hotel, Horsefair, Kidderminster, committed the offences in Worcestershire between 2004 and September last year.

Hardman admitted the charges when he appeared before Worcester Crown Court on March 1 this year.

Judge Toby Hooper QC jailed him for a total of 11 years and he will remain on the Sex Offenders Register for life. Upon his release he will be managed by the police as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Hardman was also made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) for life, the terms of which prevent him from having any unsupervised contact with a child under the age of 16.

An inquiry was conducted by Detective Constable Claire Marsden from the Public Protection Unit at Bromsgrove Police Station. She said the offences were committed against two girls while he was looking after them at different times.

He sexually abused them and also filmed them on his mobile phone.

Both victims were threatened by Hardman and were frightened of what he might do if they told anyone in authority.

However last September one of them finally told her mother what had been happening, which led to the offences committed against the other girl coming to light.

When Hardman was arrested a number of mobile phones were seized from him which contained numerous sexual images of children.

DC Marsden said: “Hardman initially attempted to lie his way out of the situation and claimed his victims had made it all up. However, faced with overwhelming evidence he finally confessed and admitted the charges.

“He was in a position of trust when these offences happened and he abused that in a terrible way. He deserves to be behind bars and the sentence reflects the seriousness of the crimes he committed.

“Hopefully the result has provided some comfort and closure to his victims and I have nothing but admiration for the courage and bravery they have shown in coming forward to give evidence against their abuser.

“Although fortunately cases like this are rare in West Mercia we hope the outcome will encourage any other victims of sexual abuse to contact police and have faith that we will do everything possible to investigate complaints and bring offenders to justice.”