A gym coach who sexually abused girls he was training over a 38-year period has been jailed.
Graham Oliver, 58, now of Heol Fedw, Swansea, had pleaded guilty at St Albans Crown Court to 13 sexual assault charges.
He admitted abusing five victims in Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire since 1977, including a five-year-old.
He was given a 12-year jail term with a further six years on licence.
Judge Andrew Bright QC said: "You have taken the innocence and ruined the childhood of your victims."
Oliver was caught after one of the women contacted police in April and revealed what happened to her when she was aged 14 to 16 between 1978 and 1981.
She had been abused at his gym club and at his home where they had gone to watch a gym video and in Gadebridge Park in Hemel Hempstead.
'Physically sick'
Reading her victim statement to the court, the woman said she had been unable to distinguish between love and abuse and had missed out on the chance to have children.
"I am physically sick when I look back at my gymnastics memorabilia," she said.
The second victim was assaulted twice between 1977 and 1981 when she was aged between 12 and 15, while the third said she had been assaulted on about five occasions in 1977 and 1978 when she was 12.
The fourth victim was 10 in 2000 when she was abused twice and the fifth was aged five in 2014 and 2015.
Defence barrister Henry Day said Oliver had no previous convictions and had indicated a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity.
"He is ashamed of himself and acknowledges what he did was wrong," he said.
But Judge Bright said: "You have been a serial child abuser for 38 years and caused the most appalling damage to the lives of the girls concerned."
Oliver must register as a sex offender for life and is banned from working with children again.
