A caretaker who sexually abused dementia sufferers at a home where he worked will now probably die in hospital.

Edward Fitzgerald, 73, from Whitehill Road, Dartford told police about the offences and has been sentenced to 12 years in prison

The married father admitted abusing three women in their seventies and eighties between May 2004 and September 2008.

Fitzgerald already had a conviction for molestiung an eight-year-old girl, and admitted at the Inner London Crown Court that he indecently assaulted a teenage girl in the 1970s.

The court heard he recently told a probation officer he believed he was trying to give his sexual assault victims pleasure.

Pamela Brain, defending, said he should be given credit for his honesty.

"He is 73, in reasonably good health.

"But it may be a sentence where he doesn't come out of prison."

Judge Patricia Lees said Fitzgerald sought "pure sexual gratification for himself".

She said: "He didn't meet them just once. He was the maintenance man."

She told Fitzgerald: "You took advantage of three of the most vulnerable members of society who were there as residents of that home.

"Each of them suffered from advanced form of dementia."