A WEARSIDE mum today paid tribute to her “brave girls” after they helped convict a serial sex fiend.

The two sisters – now in their 20s – were both abused for years by former youth worker Andrew Hartley.

The perverted 51-year-old was jailed for seven years yesterday (THUR) after admitting a string of sex offences on Wearside dating from 1979 until last year.

Hartley would buy his victims’ silence with sweets and money before simulating sex, touching their private parts or performing oral sex on them.

The mother of two of his victims revealed how they broke their 10 years of silence to try to stop Hartley preying on other children.

“They are both mothers, they were thinking of the kids and they have been very brave girls to go through all this to stop him,” she told the Echo.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Hartley, of Ravenna Road, Red House, used any available opportunity to be alone with the girls to launch the sickening attacks.

The youngsters were aged from just six to 13 or 14 at the time of the assaults.

The 45-year-old mum said Hartley’s attacks emerged after another of his victims told a counsellor of her experiences.

She said: ” He has put my kids through a lot. They have suffered all these years in silence, kept it all to themselves. He has called them liars. That was ironic. He wasn’t even sorry or remorseful. He just smirked at us as he went out of court. He is going to suffer now. I can’t put into words what I think of him, he is sick

She added: “I had no idea what had happened, none whatsoever.

“Everybody is going through hell. I have got a counsellor, my daughters have, my mam has, everyone has. My family have been great, it has brought us closer together. I didn’t think it would hit us as bad first, I was just numb. After a few days I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“We are all relieved he got jailed. I started shaking, I was crying, hysterical. The girls were hysterical again. We are just trying to put things behind us and move on with our lives. “

Hartley, who had worked with youngsters until his arrest at Ford and Pennywell Advice Centre, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to 11 charges of indecent assault and one charge of gross indecency with a child.

Defence barrister John Evans said: “The punishment is in one sense only part of his punishment he will experience for the rest of his life, that is the complete detachment from his family.

“Of course he has no one to blame but himself but nonetheless that is, at his age, going to be a considerable blow.”

Judge David Wood branded Hartley a “considerable risk to young children in future” and ordered a further five-year extended supervision period at the end of his jail term.

He said: “The extended sentence is to protect girls from any harm from you long into the future.”