A MAN has tried to quell his sexual desires for children since committing offences on both boys and girls, a court heard.

Peter White, 39, was yesterday jailed for eight years after admitting raping a girl, as well as committing acts of gross indecency with two boys, all in the Nineties.

Durham Crown Court heard the rape only came to light last year when the victim, now in her 20s, told her sister and a complaint was made to police.

Lesley Kirkup, prosecuting, said that in the chain of events that followed, both male victims, also in their 20s, revealed what happened to them.

It led to the arrest of White, of Knitsley Gardens, Consett, County Durham, on August 24, last year.

During interviews with police, he admitted the indecency with the boys, but denied the rape allegation.

Ms Kirkup said: “Asked if he had a problem, he said ‘yes’, but he said he now has no sexual urges towards children.

“He said he was attracted to boys aged ten to 13 before puberty. But he said he was now celibate and controlling his urges.

“He denied now finding children attractive, claiming he had, ‘grown out of it’.”

Ms Kirkup said White claimed he would have been a paedophile “back then” but now feels embarrassed about it.

Brian Russell, mitigating, said: “Towards the end of the Nineties, this man appears to have made sterling efforts of his own volition to stop this kind of offending.

“He has acknowledged from an early stage that he has a problem and had made every effort to minimise the impact on others by limiting his contact with children.”

Jailing him, Judge Christopher Prince said White’s victims had shown great fortitude and did not appear to have suffered as great impact as some in similar cases.

He told him: “After committing these offences you realised it was wrong and you were determined not to repeat it.

“You chose to avoid all contact with children and turned to alcohol and drug misuse as a means of coping with your sexual attraction to children.”

White was made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, prohibiting future contact with children and he must sign the Sex Offenders’ Register, both for indefinite periods.

He was also banned from ever working on a paid or voluntary basis with children.