An ex-soldier carried out a 17 year campaign of sex and drunken violence more than 60 years ago.

"Evil monster" John Kemp - now 84 - was too ill to stand trial at Maidstone Crown Court and couldn't enter pleas.

This meant a special hearing was held where a jury must decide if he did what he is accused of and the judge has limited powers in terms of sentencing him.

The jury ruled that he had carried out 22 acts of sexual abuse between 1958 and 1975.

Judge Philip Staman couldn't send Kemp to prison but was restricted to a two year supervision order - allowing him to return to his home in Chatham.

One of his victims told him in a statement read to court: "You are an evil monster. I want to give you something..the black cloud above my shoulders, the ugliness and the bad dreams."

She added defiantly: "From today I am not going to be that frightened child..I am going to stand a strong woman confronting you."

Judge Philip Staman said that in 20 years of conducting cases at court that this was "one of the very worst cases of child sex abuse it has ever been my misfortune to have placed before me.”

‘At times I felt like my life was over...’

Prosecutor Ben Irwin revealed details of his silent attacks on four victims - leaving them traumatised and frightened.

The soldier carried out "grave sexual offences against children" including 16 sex assaults, three indecency with a child and three rapes.

As Kemp sat to the side of the court next to a family member, the prosecutor told of the "sustained violence over a lengthy period".

One victim told how when he was stationed in Canterbury he sexually assaulted her but said nothing in a place she later described as "the horriblest house in the world".

Although some of the victims tried to reveal what they went through, it wasn't until a few years ago they were believed.

Kemp, who was in the army for nine years, told the authorities that he believed their claims were made out of revenge.

Yet the jury heard how a schoolgirl told how she once took a bottle of Aspirin and later passed out and was taken to hospital where her stomach was pumped.

Now, an adult, she told the judge: "John Kemp has ruined my life. As a child I was innocent and John Kemp has taken that away for his own pleasure.

"At times I felt like my life was over. I felt dirty and that my life was not worth living. Whatever sentence is passed it will not take away the pain and hurt I have felt for most of my life."

Eve George, defending, said: "Since the trial his partner subsequently left him and he was eventually homeless and had to stay with his former wife and she had to move out of the property.

"He is now living in a self-contained property and family members take care of him."

After the mitigation, Judge Statman left the courtroom to consider the sentence after hearing shocking details of Kemp's campaign of sexual violence.

After returning, he told him: "You single-handedly destroyed their lives. I am humbled, as a judge, after reading the victim's statements.

"You made them suffer it is nothing short of miraculous that they have been able to lead their lives and the accounts they have given have been shown to be true."

He told Kemp, who is now likely to have Parkinson's Disease and dementia, that he had "from, start to finish, shown not one hint of remorse."

The judge praised the police for the work they had done and called the victims "extraordinarily brave."

Kemp was later led away by members of his family.