THE ex-girlfriend of a sex offender who preyed on York schoolgirls soon after he was released from prison has told of her horror when she discovered his past.

The 21-year-old woman, who cannot be named, alerted police after Kai Griffiths, 24, sexually assaulted her at her home in York soon after she tried to end a fledgling relationship with him. She has also warned he will offend again.

It was found that Griffiths had also been arranging meetings with teenagers on Facebook claiming he was 17. He had not disclosed he had previously been jailed for sex offences.

Griffiths was jailed for four-and-a-half years last week after pleading guilty to charges of sex assault and breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

His victim said: “I feel sick at his prison sentence. It makes me feel sick he is going to come out and do it again.

“We should have been notified he was a sex offender. I do genuinely believe he is going to come out of prison and do it again and who says he is not going to come and look for me when he gets out for telling police.

“He shouldn’t be allowed out.”

Griffiths had first been in trouble as a 12-year-old for molesting a school friend, and was jailed for nine years in 2010 for preying on a schoolgirl, as well as a burglary and a brutal late-night gang attack. When he was released on licence to a bail hostel in York, he pretended to be a traveller, put on a false accent and used the name Paddy whenever he met the girls.

However, the alarm was not raised before Griffiths had frequently met the youngsters, bought them alcohol and visited the home of one of them.

He had kissed at least three, asked one to be his girlfriend with the promise of gifts, and taken video footage on his phone of them dancing.

The woman - who met Griffiths through friends - said she feels traumatised she had trusted Griffiths and allowed him into the home she shared with younger relatives.

She said: “He seemed the nicest person you will ever meet.

“He would tell me I was his and no way would he hurt me. He said he would always be there and he would marry me.

“I had no reason to doubt him.

“When I first found out what he had been in prison, I felt horrified.”

Griffiths had claimed he had served a long sentence for serious violence, and she tried to end the fledgling relationship because of the way he treated her.

He went to her flat after texting “it’s not over”, and groped her twice while she dozed on the settee.

The woman later found out who he really was, what he had done in the past and contacted all the girls he had been chatting with on social media.

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: “If we had known the victim was in a relationship with Griffiths, we would have taken the appropriate steps to inform her of his offending.

“The police will make a disclosure to people if they believe it would protect them.

“Apart from the Child Sex Offenders Disclosure Scheme and the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, the police can disclose information either through the MAPPA process or through a common law disclosure if there is a need to protect someone from the actions of someone else.”

At Teesside Crown Court last Thursday, Judge Peter Bowers told Griffiths: “What worries me is you have had sex offender treatment and you are either unwilling or unable to learn from it.

“The probation report says you remain manipulative, devious and dishonest. It’s worrying.”