A paedophile pensioner has been jailed for 20 years after his victims broke their silence decades after he abused them.
Arthur Bierton, now 72, was convicted at Teesside Crown Court of abusing two young girls in the 1980s and 90s.
The first offences happened just months after he was released from jail, where he had served a sentence for child rape.
He initially lived in Leeds, where some of the offences took place, before moving to Thirsk where he committed further assaults.
Both girls were under ten years old when Bierton first assaulted them but they were so traumatised they were only able to bring themselves to report the offences to North Yorkshire Police last year.
Bierton, who lived in the Stockton Road area of Thirsk, stood trial for 14 charges of sexual abuse, including three counts of raping one of the girls.
He claimed he had a medical condition that meant he could not have carried out some of the offences. When police charged him with the rapes, he simply replied: “Not medically possible”. He continued to deny the other charges detectives put to him, saying “impossible” and “definitely not”. He also denied he had committed the child rape he was previously imprisoned for, claiming he had only pleaded guilty for a lighter sentence.
However, a jury convicted him of all 14 counts on Wednesday (4 May 2016), following a week-long trial.
He was sentenced immediately after the verdict.
After the case ended, Sergeant Andy Palmer of North Yorkshire Police, said:
The verdict shows Arthur Bierton for what he is and always has been – a vile paedophile who has absolutely no remorse for his victims.
His conviction proves that there is no hiding place for people like him. We take reports of non-recent sexual assault extremely seriously and will do everything in our power to bring offenders to justice, no matter how many decades have lapsed.
However, this outcome would not have been possible without the enormous bravery of his victims, who have been supported through the process by sexual abuse charity IDAS and specially-trained police officers.
They have shown strength and dignity throughout the process and they should serve as an example to others who have been victims of non-recent abuse and not reported it to the police.
It’s difficult to imagine having to live with the harrowing impact of Bierton’s offending for such a long time. But to make matters worse, Bierton’s cowardly denial means they’ve had to relive this during a criminal trial.
Their courage and co-operation have ensured that a man with a horrific history of sexual offending will now spend a very long time in prison, where he belongs.
