An SAS soldier and a former St John Ambulanceman who sexually abused young girls have been handed prison sentences totalling 49 years.

Judge Patrick Thomas QC said the jury at Worcester Crown Court had had to listen to "a catalogue of depravity" during the five-week trial.

Ian Tuckley, aged 32, was sentenced to 25 years on eight counts of rape, four of indecent assault and three of sexual assault on a child.

He will not be considered for release until he has served twelve and a half years.

Finney, aged 40, was convicted on 12 counts of rape, three of indecent assault, sexual assault and one of adminstering a gas to stupefy a girl for sex.

He was sentenced to 24 years and will have to serve at least 12 years before release.

Finney, of Chestnut Road, Wednesbury, West Midlands, waved to friends in the public gallery as he went down to the cells.

Tuckley, of Farren Avenue, Hereford, was impassive in the dock.

Twice-divorced Tuckley, who had served with the Royal Welsh Regiment and 22 SAS in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, had also pleaded guilty(admit) before the trial to downloading computer images of child abuse.

Prosecutor Jonas Hankin said that Tuckley offered sweets to his victims and called his abuse "a bit of fun." The girls were attacked between 1996 and 2009 but the pair were not arrested until October last year.

The judge said the men, who were brothers-in-law, had begun abuse when one of the girls was a young child. They had acted out the "vilest and most degrading fantasies".

Tuckley got one of the girls drunk and used his physical strength to overcome her resistance.

The judge said he considered the pair to be dangerous and neither had shown the slightest remorse or understanding of their conduct.

He praised the girl victims for giving evidence and said their dignity and courage was outstanding.