A ‘dangerous and violent abuser’ has been jailed for 14 and a half years for scarring the lives of three children who he sexually assaulted almost 50 years ago.

Stuart Hood was himself a teenager and young adult when he carried out the abuse which was described as sadistic and humiliating by the boy and two girls who suffered it.

He joined the army when he was 16 and carried out some of the assaults while home on leave in the Okehampton area, where he later found work at a hotel and golf course and was a local bandsman.

Two of Hood’s three victims wrote moving victim impact statements which were read to Judge Anna Richardson before she passed sentence at Exeter Crown Court.

The male victim read his statement on a video link and said his entire life had been blighted by the abuse he suffered, leading to years of social isolation, self-loathing and feelings of worthlessness.

He said: “Much of my adult life has been affected by the perverted and cruel things he did to me. I have always felt like an outsider because of his emotional and sexual abuse.”

Addressing Hood, he said: “I can finally point the shame back where it belongs, you. I can hold my head high. I have finally been heard and got justice.

One of the female victims said she had bottled up the pain of her childhood for many years and hoped the outcome of this case would encourage others to come forward. She said she had been given a life sentence of suffering by his actions.

Hood, aged 59, of Okehampton, denied but was convicted ten counts of indecency and one of a serious sexual offence which would now be described as male rape.

He was jailed for 14 years and six months and put on the sex offenders’ register for life.

Judge Richardson told him: “You demonstrated a total lack of sexual boundaries. The victim personal statements show the huge effect it has had on their lives.

“I accept that you are now a valued member of society in the local community but that does not change the fact that, to your victims, you were a dangerous and violent abuser.”

During the trial last month the jury heard how Hood physically assaulted the boy before forcing him to take part in repeated sexual acts.

He forcibly stripped one girl and chased the other with a riding crop before assaulting her.

He carried out the assaults when he was living in a village near Okehampton before he joined the army at the age of 16 in the late 1970s or when he returned to Devon on leave.

He abused one girl in the 1970s and the other in the 1980s after he had left the forces and was living back in Okehampton. He went on to work for 27 years at a hotel and golf course in the area.

All three victims had told other people about abuse at the time or since but the truth only came to light when police started in inquiry into the boy’s allegations which led to them tracing the two female complainants.

The victims described Hood as a bully who had made the boy salute him and call him Sir when he was home on leave from the army.

In one incident, Hood chased a teenaged girl while wielding a horse whip before cornering her and touching her chest.

Hood told the jury that none of the incidents had happened and all three complainants had invented their stories.

He said he had been away with the army at barracks in Dorset, Yorkshire or Germany at times when he was alleged to have carried out the assaults.

He said he had been happily married for many years and had worked at a golf course and as a builder.

Mr Joss Ticehurst, defending, said Hood had been very young and immature when he carried out the abuse but has lived a blameless life as a hard working family man ever since.