A MONSTER who Reggie Kray once described as his adopted son began an 18-year jail sentence last night for a string of sex assaults on children.

Peter Gillett, who boasted of his gangland connections, horrifically raped and sexually abused children as young as eight.

Two girls he abused, now women in their 40s, came forward to police after seeing comments on an online message board claiming Gillett had sexually abused a young boy.

It prompted a dramatic police investigation into allegations of rape, indecent assault, causing actual bodily harm and child cruelty spanning seven years.

A court heard Gillett, now 59, abused a boy from the ages of eight to 15 and two girls from the ages of 13 to 15 years, in the 1980s and 90s.

He was convicted at Lewes Crown Court and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment over the horrific abuse which took place in Crawley, West Sussex.

It can be reported now after he was also jailed for a year for illegally possessing a taser stun gun.

Gillet fired his own counsel part-way through proceedings and decided, unsuccessfully, to defend himself.

Detective Constable Rees Hopcraft said after sentencing: "These offences came to light in 2016 when the two girls, by then in their 40s, contacted us after learning of online postings suggesting that Gillet had sexually abused a young boy.

"We investigated and gradually uncovered a series of offences of sexual abuse by him against all three victims when they were young and vulnerable children, over a period of years.

"All three gave evidence against him and after a long trial, during which Gillett discharged his counsel and defended himself, the jury convicted him of the sexual offences."

Gillet grew close to notorious mobster Reggie Kray while they served time in prison together and Kray once described the sex abuser as his “adopted son."

The duo even wrote a song together, entitled “I Began To Notice”, signed copies of which have previous been available on Amazon.