AN “EVIL” paedophile who threatened to run over one of his terrified victims if she told on him has been jailed for 14 years.

Frederick Denton slammed the door to the cells in rage when he was escorted from the dock by security staff at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

Denton, 63, was convicted by a jury after a two-week trial last month of four charges of indecent assault and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm involving the abuse of two girls in Bradford.

The offences spanned a period between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, prosecutor Stephen Wood said.

He asked Judge Neil Davey QC to return formal not guilty verdicts on three offences of rape that the jury was unable to agree verdicts on.

During the trial, the court heard that one girl was aged six or seven when Denton rubbed cream on her private parts for his own sexual gratification. He went on to make her masturbate him on a least two occasions.

He groped the second complainant’s breasts when he was drunk, and she was aged 14 or 15. She too then masturbated him at least twice.

One of the women, now in her forties, said in her victim personal statement: “I feel like I am living a prison sentence. It is the anxiety and stress. I’d like to put it back in a box but I can’t.”

“He is evil, very evil,” she stated.

Denton had threatened to run her over in his car if she told anyone about the abuse. The woman said she was still scared of him even now.

Denton also physically attacked the older girl on one occasion, dragging her by the hair and kicking her in a sustained attack that left her with facial bruising.

His barrister, Jayne Beckett, said that Denton now suffered from a number of ailments, including serious lung disease, severe back pain and a thyroid problem.

He had no similar offences on his record, although he had a previous conviction for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Denton’s wife was standing by him and he was the sole driver for his disabled daughter.

“He has moved a long way from the person who perpetrated this offending,” Mrs Beckett said.

Judge Davey said that Denton must sign on the sex offender register for the rest of his life. He made a restraining order without limit of time banning him from contacting his victims.

Judge Davey said the girls were terrified of Denton, who threatened to run one of them over if she disclosed the abuse to anyone.

He was in reality to be sentenced for six offences of indecently assaulting them because two of the charges involved multiple occasions on which they were abused.