A PAEDOPHILE from Lee whose campaign of depravity included raping an eight-year-old girl while his own young son held her down has been given a 20-year sentence.

Twisted David Brennan, aged 55, of Horn Park Lane, repeatedly abused five girls as young as seven during 15 years of perversion.

One girl claimed that, on "two or three" occasions, Brennan got his own son Sam - then just a child himself - to pin one victim to a bed while he raped her.

Woolwich Crown Court heard how the Brennans were a "sexually dysfunctional" family and that young Sam had been, in essence, groomed by his father and was exposed to graphic material from a young age.

Once, on finding an explicit picture of a young girl, he went to his mother for help, only for the matter to be "swept under the carpet".

He was also exposed to graphic videos of his mother having sex with other men - one of which David Brennan played to a victim while he raped her on her birthday.

In a victim impact statement, one of the girls said: "What happened in my life has messed me up and I suspect it always will."

She said: "As an adult with two kids I have to make life as normal as possible but what happened to me in my life will always stay with me."

The court heard David Brennan had met his wife when he was 18 and she was just 14. He had a previous "intimate" relationship at the same age with a 10-year-old girl.

He was only arrested after one of his victims came forward to police, years after the abuse. A number of handwritten notes were found in the 55-year-old's possession which he had entitled ‘My Life Story or Confession’, detailing sexual activities with girls aged under 11.

And police uncovered thousands of explicit child porn images on computers and hard drives at his home, some of the most serious kind.

Judge Amy Robinson told David Brennan on February 14:  "The impact of your offending on these young girls , now young women, will no doubt be life long."

She said: "You preyed on them by making them feel wanted and special. You gained their trust and then betrayed them."

The judge went on: "In David Brennan's case there's the additional aggravating factor that you got your son involved in this entirely deviant sexual activity at an age where he was young, impressionable and no doubt looked to you for guidance."

She sentenced David Brennan to 20 years for each of eight rapes, to run concurrently. He was handed further concurrent sentences ranging from two to 10 years for a string of other offences.

But, sentencing 22-year-old Sam Brennan, of Eltham Hill, to a three-year community order, she concluded there was a very low risk of him further offending, pointing out he was now working full-time and in a stable, loving relationship.

She said: "Rape is a very serious crime. In this case, your culpability is significantly less than would be the case in most offences of this type."

A string of offences

Before last year's trial at Woolwich Crown Court, David Brennan pleaded guilty to seven charges of possessing over 6,000 indecent images of children, along with nine counts of sexual abuse in relation to three of the victims.

He also admitted a further three charges during the course of the trial.

The 55-year-old was found guilty of eight counts of rape, six counts of indecent assault, one count of indecency with a child and one count of taking of indecent images of a child

Sam Brennan was convicted of two counts of rape, one count of taking indecent photographs of a child and one count of indecency with a child.

Anyone else affected should contact the Met's Child Abuse Investigation Team on 020 7230 3858.