IT WAS just six paragraphs long – but a small article in The Gazette was key to revealing the extent of offending by sex beast Paul Kent.

The story, printed in The Gazette in July 2012, detailed charges against Kent that related to one woman.

But when detectives returned to work the following week, four more women got in touch to say how they had read the article and alleged they too had been sexually assaulted by Kent.

Detective Constable Louise Trigg, who led the investigation, said: “By that point, we knew of two girls and knew he wasn’t right, but when more started coming forward, we were thinking about how far this would go. It seemed like another person was coming forward every day of that following week.”

Kent, a mechanic who liked to customise cars, was known to the police in Basingstoke before his sex crimes came to light, but only in relation to motoring offences.

In total, seven women came forward alleging crimes committed by Kent, many of whom described the same degrading sexual practices they said Kent made them do in the course of a relationship.

The case against him was comprised of historical allegations of rape, so with no chance of DNA evidence, detectives went about the difficult and sensitive process of interviewing the victims and witnesses.

In various police interviews and throughout his trial, Kent either denied that the offences took place or said the women consented to the sexual acts.

Det Con Trigg said: “He was extremely arrogant. He took no responsibility for what he had done and he seemed to think he had done nothing wrong.

“The victims described him as being a Jekyll and Hyde character – sometimes extremely charming and pleasant and then, in the blink of an eye, he would turn extremely aggressive and unpleasant.”

She added: “This was a pretty unique case. For him to have raped so many people in a small community and kept people under such control that nobody talked about it is unusual.”

Det Con Trigg, who is now based in Winchester, said she hoped the case would give victims confidence that sexual abuse allegations would be investigated fully, no matter when they took place.