THE mother of a victim of a Valleys paedophile branded his jail sentence pathetic and said he was a manipulative predator.

Speaking after Jason France, 39, was locked up for his campaign of sexual abuse in the 1990s, the devastated mother said the “pathetic” sentence “does not reflect what the girls have been through”.

The woman, who still lives in the Valleys, added: “I was devastated when I found out.

“He’s just scum, somebody who groomed families.

“He was a predator to vulnerablemumswith young kids – he knew exactly who he was preying on.”

She said her daughter had always kept the detail of what happened to her at the hands of France to herself to protect her mother, so she heard, in graphic detail, what happened to her daughter for the first time in court.

As reported in yesterday’s Argus, France was jailed for five-and-a-half years for sexually abusing four girls in the 1990s.

He pleaded guilty to eight counts of indecent assault and would threaten or bribe his young victims to keep them quiet.

France, of no fixed abode, targeted girls in and around Blackwood by befriending their parents and winning their trust before sexually abusing their daughters.

He was also jailed for 15 months in 1999 for indecently assaulting two other young girls.

The mother said: “He’s sick, he put the families through hell.

“He would do anything for anyone, little did we know it was for sexual favours from children.

“It’s good to see him locked up, he’s manipulative.”