A retired schoolteacher has been jailed for 16 years for a catalogue of sexual abuse against two girls stretching back almost four decades. Highly respected Frank Jones was branded “a Jekyll and Hyde character” by a judge after he was convicted yesterday afternoon of raping and sexually abusing a young girl and indecently assaulting a teenager when she was staying at his family home. Jones, 62, of Village Mews, Wilsden, repeatedly shook his head in the dock at Bradford Crown Court as the jury delivered its guilty verdicts. He was convicted of six indecent assault offences against the older girl and two charges of rape and seven of indecently assaulting his younger victim. Jones was acquitted of two allegations of indecently assaulting a young boy. During the trial, the jury heard that the allegations dated back to the mid-1970s when Jones was living in Bradford. He was arrested in January last year after one of the abused women went to the police. Jones began molesting the younger girl when she was four years old and continued until she was about 12. He repeatedly molested the teenager when she was sleeping on the settee at his home. Heavily built Jones, who wore a lilac shirt and striped tie, was told by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC to stop shaking his head at the jurors as he was led to the cells. His barrister, Richard Wright QC, said there was no reason to delay sentence for the preparation of a probation service report because Jones continued to deny all the offences. Judge Durham Hall told Jones: “You are someone who was highly regarded in society, by friends and neighbours, in your church and in your community.” But the well respected teacher had a different side to his character. When an alcoholic decades ago, he had repeatedly indecently assaulted the younger girl and twice raped her. Although she was now a grown woman with a very successful career, she had considered self harm and suicide and needed psychiatric help. “You corrupted that young woman and used her as an object,” the judge said. The older girl had also needed therapy. She had been left numb, frightened and feeling guilty.” DC Sonia Hutchinson from Bradford's Safeguarding Unit said: “I’d like to praise the courage of the two victims to come forward and the strength they showed throughout the court process. “I hope they will take some comfort that justice has been done and that Frank Jones will now have a long time to think about what he did.”
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