A “VILE” sex offender has been convicted of 13 charges involving young girls in the Philippines.

The string off offences committed by David Francis Shepherd, which included four offences of rape of a child under 13, emerged after police searched the Loders Arms near Bridport, where he was living as pub landlord in November last year.

Shepherd stood trial charged with seven offences of rape of a child under 13, one attempted rape, five counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, two charges of taking indecent photos of a child, five counts of sexual activity with a child, one assault by penetration, four charges of distributing indecent images of a child, one offence of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and one of paying for the sexual services of child.

Prior to the trial, he had pleaded guilty to inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, four counts of making indecent photographs of a child, four charges of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and one count of paying for sexual services of a child.

Shepherd, aged 60, was found guilty of 13 counts, including four offences of rape of a child under 13, attempted rape, three counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, two of taking indecent photographs of a child, assault of a child under 13 by penetration and arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.

He was cleared of all the other contested charges.

The offences occurred between April 2011 and November 2015.

Prosecutor Robert Bryan told the jury that at around 4pm on November 10 last year officers went to the Loders Arms near Bridport, where the defendant was living.

The defendant was arrested and various equipment was seized and after he was cautioned he said: “I know what you’re talking about, I’ve been chatting on the internet but I’ve never followed it through.”

Mr Bryan said two laptops, a tablet and various external hard drives were seized, some of which were protected by various passwords and encryptions.

He said that analysis of the devices revealed several thousand indecent images and movies featuring children, with one file containing some 8,500 images, as well as pictures featuring Shepherd and images apparently taken by him.

Shepherd’s passport was also seized and showed various trips to the Philippines.

He claimed he had travelled there because his wife was there and for work but the prosecution claimed that the computer devices showed evidence of web chats arranging the facilitation of sex offences.

Mr Bryan also said records showed money transfers made to those they claimed were facilitating the abuse.

When he was first interviewed, Shepherd continued to claim he had never followed through with anything and had not had any sexual contact with children in the Philippines.

He said: “If I was to have sex with a child I would probably kill myself.”

Mr Bryan told the jury that it did not matter whether any of the offences committed were carried in the Philippines, he still stood to be tried under British law.

The court was told Shepherd worked as a mariner, reaching the rank of master, and has six children.

Shepherd argued the Filipina girls looked younger than their age because they were malnourished and they were all aged 13 and over.

In his online chat logs read to the court Shepherd had expressed an interest in children as young as eight.

When asked why he did this by the prosecutor Shepherd’s response was “I wish I knew”.

The prosecution argued that one of the girls seen in a video could be heard “whimpering” and it was not consensual.

Reporting restrictions were in force during the trial, as Shepherd had been facing a number of other contested charges.

However, following the verdicts in the first trial and further legal arguments, Shepherd pleaded guilty to nine further charges of arranging or facilitating the commission of child sex offences and two counts of making indecent photos of a child.

Judge Peter Johnson then lifted the reporting restriction and the case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

Shepherd will return to court to be sentenced on August 31.