A MARRIED couple dubbed Barry’s ‘Fred and Rose West' could be facing life behind bars after a jury found them guilty of a catalogue of sexual abuse against three teenage girls.

Peter Griffiths, 65, and his blonde wife Avril, 61, raped and indecently assaulted their victims after befriending them with alcohol and cigarettes.

Prosecutor Caroline Rees QC told Cardiff Crown Court how she "groomed" them for her husband to attack over a 20-year period between the 1970s and 1990s.

After they left court to be led to the cells, Avril Griffiths could be heard crying inconsolably.

The pair were remanded in custody until their sentencing hearing which is set for October 18.

During the three-week trial, one victim said of the couple: “Everyone hated them. They were the Fred and Rose West of the town – people would avoid them.”

The jury heard that the couple would also take one girl out in a van painted in the colours of popular 1980s American TV series the A-Team.

Ms Rees said: “The male defendant would have sex with her in the back of a van while others looked on.”

The couple, of Barry Road, also raped two of the girls during a “party” on a boat in the Bristol Channel when Avril Griffiths was dressed up as a stripogram when there were other men present.

Peter Griffiths had claimed that it is he who was the victim in the case.

In cross examination, Ms Rees said to him: “You have a taste for vulnerable teenage girls.

“You groom them step by step, breaking down boundaries sexually and it moves on to photographs and it goes all the way up the scale to rape.”

He replied: “I’m the victim of them, fabricating all these lies.”

Speaking about one victim who Peter Griffiths said he had taken pictures of with a view to publishing them in a pornographic magazine, Ms Rees put it to him: “You took photographs of her, you sexualised her and you raped her and raped her.”

He answered: “Never.”

The jury of eight women and four men found Peter Griffiths guilty of eight counts of rape, three of indecent assault and two of making an indecent photograph of a child.

Avril Griffiths was convicted of five counts of rape, two indecent assault charges and two of making an indecent photograph of a child.

They had denied all charges.

She was of previous good character but Peter Griffiths had six previous convictions for eight offences, including have sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16 in 1974.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins adjourned sentence for the preparation of reports and said that he would be considering an extended or life sentence once the couple’s “dangerousness” was assessed.