A MODEL agency manager, Peter Martin, was jailed for 20 years yesterday after systematically raping and sexually abusing teenage girls.
Martin (56), a former policeman and a friend of jailed rapist Owen Oyston, winked and smiled as he was led down the steps of Manchester Crown Court to begin his sentence.
His former lover and assistant, Ms Tracey Grainey (30), was cleared of all four sex charges against her.
Judge Brian Carter QC said Martin had deliberately used the model agency to give him access to young girls, some of whom were still receiving counselling and might never live normal lives again.
There were gasps of relief and joy from Martin's victims in the public gallery as the jury unanimously found him guilty of six rapes and five indecent assaults, stretching over a period of 13 years.
He was also found guilty of two charges of taking indecent photographs of girls under the age of 16.
During the two month trial the jury had heard how girls in their early teens came to his agency hoping for modelling careers but were fed hypnotic drugs under the pretence they were slimming and vitamin pills, and subjected to degrading abuse.
The charges against Martin, involving girls aged from 13 to 18, were only specimens chosen from a total of 64 - including 19 rapes - he originally faced.
A senior detective on the case described him as "the most evil and cunning paedophile I have ever met."
Among his victims who were at court to see him jailed was a 16 year old girl who had been raped by Owen Oyston at his Claughton Hall country home near Lancaster, after being forced into a sex act by him in the back of Martin's car on the journey there.
Oyston was sentenced to six years for raping and indecently assaulting the girl by Liverpool Crown Court earlier this year.