Models in nude photosessionsdruggedand abused

For nearly a decade “sex obsessed” Phillip Brindle groomed vulnerable youngsters convincing them to pose naked for him. When the taxi driver gained their initial trust he drugged them, raped one teenager and repeatedly filmed himself abusing them.

His horror films showed him checking the girls’ eyelids to ensure they would not wake up while he was degrading them.

Reporting of the case was banned until yesterday when Brindle, 54, of Laddock, Cornwall, was locked up for a minimum 11-year term at Liverpool Crown Court.

He carried out the attacks at the home he shared with his wife Victoria in Little Lane, Wigan, from 1992 to 1998 when the pair moved south.

His wife was key to the crimes helping persuade the girls to pose, drugging them and then manipulating their naked limbs so Brindle could film the shocking abuse.

But she died from deep vein thrombosis in July 2008 before she could be brought to justice.

In November 2008 workers clearing a storage shed Brindle rented in Tregony, Cornwall, alerted police after finding evidence of his crimes.

Detectives scoured the shed and raided his home, discovering a metal box containing a list of girls’ names entitled “Hobbies”.

At his home Brindle stored videos, stills from the footage and photographs of his exploits years earlier.

Police managed to trace five women from the footage and charges were brought.

After a three-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court Brindle was convicted of two counts of rape and six of indecent assault. He was cleared of three indecent assaults.

Brindle had filmed at least three other women but two could not be traced and one was too ill to assist the investigation.

Brindle targeted teenagers with low self-esteem and who were having problems at home.

He would play on the promise of developing modelling careers for the girls, said Kannan Siva, prosecuting.

“He systematically sexually abused some very young women predominantly teenagers,” the barrister said.

Brindle refused to attend the trial and yesterday’s sentencing, insisting he was innocent.

Judge Mark Brown described him as an arch manipulator and “sexual deviant”.

The judge said: “He is an individual who has no respect for women at all and was obsessed with sex.