A London foster carer who drugged and raped young girls has been jailed for 31 years.
Bradley Dilsworth, 69, was convicted of 22 child sex offences between 2002 and 2010, including one girl who he raped when she was aged between five and eight after her parents left her with him.
The former foster carer allowed the children to smoke cannabis and drink alcohol at his home in Walthamstow.
He went undetected for years while concealing “his true nature behind the image of a trusted and approachable adult”, the Metropolitan Police said.
The father “systematically groomed, abused and raped” the children, prosecutor Emma Fielding told his Snaresbrook Crown Court case, heard at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday.
The court was told that two of his victims were unconscious when they were attacked.
One believed she was in a relationship with Dilsworth and he frequently raped her during that time.
Police have said they believe there could be more victims.
He sat in a wheelchair and stared blankly into the middle distance as victim witness statements were read out and his offending recounted.
Judge Edward Franklin told Friday’s sentencing: “There is no evidence of remorse, you contested all these charges.”
He added: “I have heard the moving victim personal statements.
“They disclosed the effect of your offending on all aspects of their life, over many years – what you did has had a devastating effect upon them.”
The judge also told him: “You derived satisfaction from sexual and emotionally dominating your victims”.
He drugged and raped a 10 year old girl from a deprived background and continued to regularly rape her until she was 14 or 15, prosecutor Emma Fielding told the court.
Judge Franklin said of the offences against this victim: “(The) frequent and multiple incidents of rape amount to a campaign of rape.”
Another girl witnessed this abuse before Dilsworth then pressured her into sex when she was 14 years old.
This second victim believed she was in a relationship with Dilsworth until she was 17 years old, ceasing contact with him at aged 19, and he raped her on a regular basis.
On one occasion he used her to force a girl between five and eight years old to perform a sex act on him while she did the same.
The fourth victim was 14 or 15 years old when she was invited into his house and drugged and raped.
“When she confronted Mr Dilsworth about what he had done he told her it was a beautiful thing and that they should do it more often”, Ms Fielding said.
Dilsworth still lived at the CCTV-monitored property when he was arrested in April last year, the Met said.
Detective Inspector James Rush, who led the Met’s investigation, told reporters: “Dilsworth is a manipulative and predatory offender who exploited children for his own sexual gratification.”
The Met launched a probe after a victim came forward in November 2024.
Officers arrested Dilsworth in April the following year and charged him with a “long list of non-recent sexual offences”.
Investigators traced two further victims who had not come forwards and Dilsworth was further charged with offences against them.
His house was found to be an “Aladdin’s cave” of electrical devices when officers searched it and 100 digital exhibits were seized including hard drives, discs and USB devices, the force said.
Internal CCTV footage from cameras around the house was recovered and “revealed years of offending”, police added.
