A couple has been jailed after they subjected two young girls to a ‘campaign of depravity’.

Tiffany Eccles, 27, and John Mills, 38, raped the girls – one of them from the age of eight – and forced them to take part in threesomes and lewd sexual games.

Mills, from Bury in Greater Manchester, raped the first girl ‘at least’ five times and then made her watch as he and Eccles had sex.

He would also encourage her to play games such as Spin the Bottle while naked.

She was targeted after Mills befriended her father and the first sexual attack took place during a camping trip attended by both households.

Prosecutor Jon Close said: ‘She was just eight years old and stayed in the same tent as the defendants.

‘He began touching her and she tried to get out of the tent he pulled his hand over her face saying: “Shh! don’t do that”.’

‘She knew it was wrong but was too frightened to tell anyone as she was fearful she would get into trouble.’

Mr Close added: ‘The offending escalated when he took her to a shop in his car and he bought condoms.

‘As they were coming back, he turned down a country road and told her to lie down in the back of his car and he raped her.’

The girl revealed her ordeal to her mother last November – leading to the arrest of Eccles and Mills.

In a statement read out in court, the victim told her abusers: ‘I will never get back the body I had before the abuse but if I didn’t speak up about this, I would never have been saved and this would have happened to other children.

‘I want you to sit there and listen to me as I had to do with you when you did all those horrible things.

‘Hear my words – what you did will not define me.’

The second victim had confided about her ordeal in a teacher at school.

It later emerged the abuse had only stopped when lockdown restrictions were implemented in the UK.

The court heard the girl was forced to watch as Eccles stripped off and then told the group would play a ‘game.’ 

Eccles then had sex with Mills in front of her as a ‘demonstration.’

The second victim said in a statement: ‘I was subjected to horrific things no child should ever be subjected to.

‘They did what they wanted regardless of my feelings. They manipulated me.’

At Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, Eccles was jailed for seven years and two months after she admitted engaging in sexual activity in presence of a child under 13 and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Mills was jailed for 19 years and three months after he admitted rape, assault by penetration, sexual assault and causing a child to engage in sexual activity. 

Judge Bernadette Baxter told the court: ‘This vile behaviour was committed over a number of years and the victim’s statements make clear the dreadful and long-lasting impact your depravity has had on them.

‘Your behaviour will live with them long after any sentence I pass expires.’

In mitigation for Eccles, Anna Chestnutt said: ‘The offending was only ever instigated by Mills and she acted under his direction.’

Ms Chestnutt said her client had suffered ‘a campaign of emotional abuse and manipulation at his hands.’

In a letter to the court Mills said: ‘I can’t take back what I have done and make it right but I wish I could.

‘I didn’t think about my actions at the time but I realise I have torn lives apart and innocent people now suffer for what I have done. I hope they will eventually find peace.’

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