A SERIAL paedophile who masqueraded as Uncle John, champion of children's charities, while he lured young boys to his five-acre playground paradise at Bilbrook has been jailed for 14 years.

For nearly a decade, John Adams, aged 57, presented himself as a pillar of the West Somerset community to hide his systematic sexual abuse of children.

He raped, indecently assaulted and committed serious sex offences against boys as young as seven who were targeted and groomed by Adams after he had befriended their families.

On Monday, he was convicted of 40 sex offences and put on the Sex Offenders' Register for life by Exeter Crown Court.

"You are clever, devious and a total liar," Judge Graham Cottle told Adams.

"The prosecution has proved its case that you are a serial paedophile. I have no hesitation in reaching the conclusion that you represent a serious risk to young boys."

During the five-week trial, the jury heard that Adams became a WRVS holiday provider for underprivileged children who would not otherwise have a break.

He equipped his house with musical instruments, a computer and snooker room plus mountain bikes, go-karts and play equipment in the grounds.

Linda Sullivan QC, prosecuting, said: "Having been seduced by the attractions of the house, boys started to stay at weekends and in the holidays."

Adams, who ran restaurants in Minehead and Porlock and cut a figure of respectability in the community, befriended the families of his potential victims.

He was known as Uncle John, spoke out for children's rights and in one year alone raised £6,000 for the NSPCC, marking himself out as the charity's leading West Country fundraiser.

And at the same time he was showering sweets, new clothes and cash on to young boys from deprived backgrounds, bribing them to keep the secret.

Miss Sullivan said Adams would initiate "procedures" to test the youngsters and, if they "didn't scare", would lead them into sexual activity.

In 1992, a police investigation was launched after a complaint by one young boy, but it was halted by conflicting evidence from another. The WRVS then dropped Adams from its holiday project.

In the mid 1990s, Adams moved to North Petherton and took boys with him on his job of delivering and collecting films.

Miss Sullivan said Adams was "virtually never to be seen without the company of one or more small boys" during the 1990s.

Last year, another boy made a complaint about Adams and an investigation involving 20 officers was launched, led by Detective Chief Inspector Guy Vickers.

Adams maintained the children had concocted stories about him to hide abuse among themselves and, in one case, by a boy's own mother.

Life-scarring experiences at Adams' hands were described by 11 young boys, often giving evidence by video link with the court.

After the hearing, NSPCC regional director Eileen Shearer said sexual abuse undermined a child's trust in adults, exposing them to problems with later relationships including with their own children.

"Some children we have dealt with go on to commit suicide. They can suffer from depression, mutilate and cut themselves and quite often they can develop drug or alcohol problems or get involved in crime.

"The abuser gets them to believe it's their own fault, so they won't tell anybody. They then find it hard to trust people again.

"Being abused can affect a child's development socially, emotionally and behaviourally."

Adams originally faced 48 offences involving 13 boys and one of perverting the course of justice. He was cleared of the latter, two charges of indecent assault and one of rape on the direction of the judge.

After 19 hours of deliberation spread over five days, the jury found Adams guilty of 28 indecent assaults, nine serious sex offences and three of indecency with a child.

Judge Cottle told him: "For a period spanning the best part of a decade, you preyed upon young and mainly disadvantaged boys, targeting them, grooming them, winning their trust and affection by a display of kindness - all part of the stock in trade of a paedophile and designed to achieve only one purpose.

"I must pass a sentence which protects young boys from your activities for a long period of time."