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was moored in the Bristol Channel. The court heard sex parties were held on the boat, during which Mrs Griffiths was said to have dressed as a “kissogram”, wearing long boots and suspenders underneath a coat.

One complainant alleged she was sexually abused several times on a boat, but Peter Griffiths told the court he had a “good memory” of everything that happened on board because that was how he earned his living, taking people on fishing trips, charging £8 per person.

The court heard he sometimes took police officers on fishing trips, which were arranged through the South Wales Police social club. He said he provided tea and coffee, not alcohol, and could provide equipment like fishing rods if required.

Addressing in court the allegation there were “sex parties” on the boat, his barrister asked him: “I’m going to ask you a blunt question. Did you ever provide anything other than fishing rods and drinks, such as girls?” The defendant replied: “Never.” Peter and Avril Griffiths first met in the 1960s, when Avril was only just 14. Peter was four years older.

Before she had turned 16, Avril was pregnant by him, and was taken into care. By 18, the couple were married, despite warnings the match was ill-advised.

By the time they were in their 20s, they had begun “working as a team” to target the three “young, vulnerable” teenagers.

The home they moved to around 40 years ago has few plants or garden features, and is separated from the road by railings with black, peeling paint. On the weekend after the trial, the windows are blacked out by heavy material.

Even though Peter and Avril Griffiths had little to do with their neighbours, mutterings that they were a bit “odd” were rife.

Mrs Griffiths stopped going to the local shop – where she used to pop in nearly every day to buy cigarettes – around 18 months ago and was rarely seen out after this.

One neighbour said: “I heard the stories over the years. The main one was that he used to prostitute her out at service stations. And she used to get changed at the front bedroom window with the curtains open for all to see.

“When you hear things like that, in the nude for all to see, you just think ‘that’s wrong.’

“They seemed just normal, but when you think what they were getting up to . . . it just makes you sick.

“Now, you wonder if they were going back and doing those things. Yes, we had heard the stories, but never imagined it was something to that extent.”

Another neighbour said: “None of us liked them. We thought they were odd.”

According to her, the couple were going back and forth to their property every night in the week before their trial.

She said: “On Monday, there were gigantic flames in the back garden – we thought someone had set fire to the house. But they were just having a fire.

“I am just disgusted, all of the street are. My kids have been in their house. When I think how close to danger I was, it’s just frightening, really frightening.”

Another said: “Just seeing the van parked outside and knowing what went on there is just frightening.”

Peter Griffiths was found guilty of eight counts of rape, two counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child and three counts of indecent assault.

Avril Griffiths was found guilty of five counts of rape, two counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child and two counts of indecent assault.

Avril, 61, did not give evidence in her defence.

But a psychological report was presented to Cardiff Crown Court by a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist.

It stated her IQ was “extremely low”. In 1972, she was assessed when she was 15 years old and was found to be someone who failed to understand “what was really being said to her” and was “terribly suggestible”.

The 1972 assessment “still stands”, the court was told.

The pair will be sentenced on October 18.