A FORMER British Olympic hopeful has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years for a "regime of sexual abuse" against teenage girls at the athletics club where he coached.

Runner Philip Banning, of Penhow, South Wales, pleaded guilty at Winchester Crown Court to 18 charges of indecent assault against four girls, three aged under 16 and one from when she was aged 11, dating back to the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Sentencing the 68-year-old, Judge Keith Cutler said: "You were responsible for a grave abuse of trust.

"I am absolutely sure they must have idolised you, a very well-known young athlete, and what you were doing to those four was grooming them, abusing your position, seeking them as your sexual relief."

He ordered Banning to be put on the sex offenders' register for life.

Tim Moores, prosecuting, told the court that Banning targeted youngsters who were his "favourites" and who he gave "special treatment" while working as a coach for Andover Athletics Club.

He said the defendant would hold parties at his home where he would take some of his victims into a "dark room" that he had set up where he would kiss and grope them.

Banning would also grope and sexually assault his victims while giving them sports massages at his home while his wife was in another room and also while driving the young athletes home, Mr Moores said.

The prosecutor said: "He showed an aptitude for athletics as a young man and as a teenager he joined, or effectively began, the Andover Athletics Club.

"He progressed in his running to the point he was running at international level for Team GB and was an Olympic hopeful in the early part of his career."

He added that after going to college, Banning returned to Andover as a PE teacher and a coach and said: "Under the guise of acting as a coach and mentor, he was pursuing a regime of abuse against certain members of the club."

Mr Moores said that when Banning took one of his victims into the "dark room" at his party "he kissed her and groped her chest area, she recalls he was putting his 'slimy tongue down my throat', he had a 'scratchy beard' and 'gropey hands' on her body."

One of his victims, who Banning had sent a Valentine's Card to when she was 12, told the court: "I was left abused, violated and confused, still too young and innocent to understand the significance of this. I was also left with the most destructive of feelings - shame."

Another victim said: "A girl's first kiss is meant to be special. I remember my first kiss, it was brutal, forceful, slimy, unpleasant and I didn't want it - it was from Banning, it shattered all my dreams."

Another victim, angrily pointed at the defendant in the dock and said: "I kept my secret for nearly 40 years. I felt deep, deep shame about what I let happen to me. I was a 13-year-old child, you are not going to get the sentence I want you to get."

Euan Bennett, defending, said: "He has become a more humble man and certainly wanted me to express his sincere apologies to those he has harmed, he has genuine feelings of remorse."