An illegal immigrant who attacked three girls in Basildon has been jailed for three-and-a-half years and will be deported.

Omar Andani, 18, targeted his teenaged victims over three days in March, Basildon Crown Court heard. Judge Daniel Worsley described the Ghanian as a "sexual predator of alarming arrogance".

He told him: "It is quite clear you were trying, in the first place, to make the girls have voluntary sexual activity with you and when they were so obviously terrified and trying to get away you forced them to do it.

"None of the girls, I am absolutely sure, led you on in the slightest way. The evidence and the verdict proves you to be a sexual predator of alarming arrogance and without inhibitions."

The first victim, a 15-year-old girl, said Andani followed her and sexually assaulted her in Whitmore Way, Basildon.

He struck again three days later, targeting a 13-year-old girl in the town centre and, hours later, a 17-year-old.

Andani, of Adderly Street, London, was found guilty of two sexual assault charges, one of assault by penetration and causing a person to engage in sexual activity without their consent .

The judge recommended deportation when his sentence ends, banned him from ever working with children and put him on the sex offenders' register for life.