A SERIAL sex offender and former frontman of a Newcastle screamo/electronica band has been jailed for a maximum of 28 years for sexually abusing more than a dozen girls aged between 12 and 16 over a nine-year period.
Daniel Hanson styled himself as "Jimmy Beloved" while lead singer of Newcastle band Falling for Beloved and used his status as a local musician to meet, manipulate, groom and rape young girls between 2005 and 2014.
On Thursday, Hanson, now 34, was jailed for a maximum of 28 years, with a non-parole period of 21 years.
He will be eligible for parole in 2040, at the age of 53.
Hanson had pleaded guilty to 23 counts of sexual and indecent assault against 14 girls aged between 12 and 22 over a nine-year period.
A dozen of the girls he assaulted were aged between 12 and 16, while Hanson was aged between 18 and 24.
Hanson would typically approach underage girls at his gigs, ask for their phone number, tell them they were "the most beautiful girl in the room" and then begin a text message exchange that gradually became more graphic and sexual in nature.
He would lie about his age, always telling the girls he was also underage or years younger than he was.
In reality, from the time he was about 18 until he was 24, Hanson "showed a sexual interest in young women under the age of 16", according to an agreed statement of facts, with seven years the average age difference between Hanson and his victims.
At one stage, when Hanson was 22, he repeatedly sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl.
After lying about his age, Hanson would shower the girls with compliments and then organise their bus and train routes so they could meet him in parks or stormwater drains near his house.
They would talk about music, the lyrics to his songs and then Hanson would sexually and indecently assault them, always telling them not to tell anyone about "their little secret".
On at least one occasion he urged a young girl to skip school to come and see him, while another girl who wanted to interview Hanson for a school project about the band was instead sexually assaulted.
If the girls didn't comply with his sexual requests or displeased him, he would make them walk home or cut off contact.
Hanson's relentless reign of terror occurred between 2005 and 2014.
The most serious charges he admitted to were two counts of persistent sexual abuse of a child and related to two girls aged 12 and 14, who Hanson sexually abused while he was aged between 18 and 20.
Once charged with more than 100 offences after media attention triggered a flood of complaints and allegations, the DPP ultimately withdrew dozens of charges.
- FULL STORY IN TOMORROW'S NEWCASTLE HERALD
