Seven years for attacks on girls

A man who sexually assaulted four girls has been jailed for seven years.

Lewes Crown Court heard John Opaszowoski, from Billingshurst in West Sussex, attacked the girls aged between nine and 13 over a two-year period.

The 54-year-old former labourer, of Forge Way, had befriended the girls by paying them to help him bottle his home brew at his flat, the court was told.

He pleaded guilty to indecent assault, indecency with a child and taking indecent photographs of a child.

School raised alarm

The court heard Opaszowoski, a divorced father-of-one, gave his victims presents including make-up and tobacco in an attempt to buy their silence.

But one girl told staff at her school, who then raised the alarm with social services, the trial was told.

The court was told Opaszowoski had eight previous convictions, including a sex attack on a 60-year-old woman in Eastbourne in 1972, for which he was jailed for 18 months.

As well as being jailed, Opaszowoski was put on the Sex Offenders' Register and banned from working with children.