Paedophile carried out 'harrowing' sex abuse on boy and girl

A paedophile pensioner who carried out 'harrowing' sexual abuse on a young boy and girl has been jailed for 17 years.

Peter Byrne violently raped both of his victims on multiple occasions more than 30 years ago. They bravely came forward to police after the 76-year-old appeared in court for another sex abuse offence, Yorkshire Live reports.

Byrne, who is originally from Calderdale but now lives in Irlam, was first convicted of indecently assaulting girls under 14 back in 1970 when he was 25. He also admitted further sexual abuse offences in the late 1980s.

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In 2016, at the age of 69, he travelled 150 miles to sexually attack an eight-year-old girl only to find out he had been talking to an undercover police officer. Byrne was jailed for 30 months for that offence, but his court case prompted two more of his victims to contact the police. Last month he was convicted of a series of serious sexual offences against them dating back to the 1980s and early 1990s.

Byrne was jailed on Friday (April 25) for offences of rape, buggery and indecent assault. His own barrister David Hall said the pensioner would be 'a frail old man' when he becomes eligible for release after serving two-thirds of his 17-year jail term.

Judge Andrew Hatton imposed an extended licence period on top of his jail sentence after concluding he was a dangerous offender. He added the victims’ impact statements made 'harrowing reading' and by putting them through a trial Byrne had continued abusing them by requiring them to be cross-examined.

"Both of them have been significantly impacted by your offending," he told Byrne via a video link to HMP Leeds. "Both of them