AN elderly former council leader has been jailed for a string of sex attacks on two girls and a woman.

Ric Pallister, 74, who led South Somerset District Council from 2011 to 2018, was found guilty of 18 indecent assaults at Taunton Crown Court.

He was cleared of 15 similar counts after a trial lasting two weeks.

Pallister, of East Chinnock, was jailed for 11 years on Friday, the day after the jury returned its verdict.

The court had heard that the married, churchgoing father groomed and sexually assaulted the victims between the 1980s and 2000s, abusing one of the girls when she was just nine.

Pallister lied to the court by claiming he had a long-running consensual affair with the woman, who is married.

Jailing him, Recorder Jo Martin QC said: "Everything in the world is about sex, except for sex which us about power."

She said:"You have a dark side, a shadow side to your personality, a flaw in your personality.

"You used that power, you had a power to do what you wanted, in particular to control women and teenage girls. You were an opportunistic risk taker.

"It was the risk that was the thrill."

The judge said Pallister had always been a "touchy feely man", but said he made disgusting slurs against the oldest victim by saying she had a consensual affair with him.

The former LibDem councillor had been an air traffic controller at the Royal Navy Air Station at Yeovilton, Somerset, during his Navy career.

One of his victims, now a 45-year-old married mother, wept as she told Pallister in court: "It is over 35 years since you first abused me when I was nine. Not a day passes that I am not impacted by your actions."

She told the judge that she was made to feel to blame and a sense of worthlessness by his manipulative, coercive behaviour and she suffers flashbacks of what he did to her in the past in her present sexual relationship.

She said: "Ric, you are a womaniser who thrives on the attention. It is no justification for your actions when I was a child."

Another victim, who was ten when they first met, told the judge: "I completely trusted him. Over many years he betrayed that trust."

She said she felt "awful and disgusted" about herself as she only "wanted to be loved and accepted".

The woman Pallister abused said she was a victim of his "sex pest behaviour" along with other women.

She said Pallister "conjured up an account of a sexual affair which I find offensive, demeaning, most distressing and a total fabrication".

After the case Det Sgt Frank Glover said: "On the surface Ric Pallister appeared to many to be a dedicated and respected member of his community - but the reality could not have been more stark.

"He was an opportunistic and prolific abuser who carried out a series of appalling sexual offences against three female victims over a significant period of time.

"He was able to commit these acts in plain sight and wielded the ability to groom, manipulate, control and coerce his victims. The impact of his offending has been damaging and long lasting, leaving his victims with mental scars and issues with self worth and self belief."

Referring to the victims, DS Glover added: "They’ve shown incredible fortitude in coming forward to disclose the abuse they suffered and they gave compelling evidence in court. I hope this outcome will help them with their continuing journeys to find a form of closure.

“I also hope these verdicts will help other victims of sexual abuse to come forward and report offences to us; we can investigate offences even if they’ve been committed in the past. Please don’t suffer in silence and speak to the police, or another agency specialised in dealing with victims of sexual crimes.”

READ MORE: Ric Pallister found guilty of indecent assaults.