A “vile” paedophile has been jailed for seven years for the manipulative sexual abuse of a young girl.
Peter Terry, 44, was branded a hypocrite by a judge after confessing his offending to the police – and then blaming the teenager for seducing him.
Terry, of The Gate caravan park, Leeds Road, Ilkley, was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of four charges of indecent assault and two of gross indecency.
He was found not guilty of four allegations of raping the girl.
Yesterday, Terry’s barrister, Peter Topham, told the court he suffered from arthritis to the spine and other health problems.
Mr Topham said there was a different side to Terry. He helped a disabled friend and his wife had not abandoned him.
But Judge Peter Benson said they were “wicked” offences.
When the girl threatened to tell her mother, Terry used “manipulative emotional blackmail” and bribed her with cigarettes.
Terry handed himself into the police on January 31 this year.
“Like a lot of people who are paedophiles, you put a wicked and manipulative twist on those admissions,” the judge said.
“You are a hypocrite as well as a vile abuser of a young girl, who showed great courage and dignity in recounting the things you did to her. She was an honest and convincing witness.”
Judge Benson added: “Only a significant sentence of imprisonment can mark the evil that you did.”
The judge made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order without limit of time and ordered Terry to sign on the sex offenders’ register for life.
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