26th August 2010

Boroughbridge paedophile Thomas Fisher jailed for 16 years for sex crimes in Knaresborough and Leeds

DECADES of torment for two women are over after a paedophile who ruined their childhoods was jailed for 16 years.

Thomas Henry Fisher, 65, had a stash of hardcore porn including videos involving animals at his home when police arrested him.

He had begun his catalogue of crimes 30 years earlier and continued them up to the year before his arrest.

During that period he had subjected each woman to repeated sexual abuse including rape when each was aged between seven and 17. His reign of terror in their lives only ended when the younger victim received training at school from the child exploitation and online protection centre on paedophiles. She went to the police and as they investigated her allegations, detectives learned about the abuse of the older victim.

A police investigation saw a hoard of computers seized from his Boroughbridge home which contained 751 indecent images of children and seven video files of bestiality.

A number of notebooks containing sexual fantasies, including some involving slaves and young girls were also seized.

The two victims were abused between the ages of seven and 17 in a period from 1979 to 2008, with the earlier offences occurring in Leeds and the latter in Knaresborough.

Fisher initially denied the offences, apart from admitting that he had a consensual sexual relationship with the first victim when she was 18, which he claimed was instigated by her.

Fisher, formerly of Knaresborough, was arrested by North Yorkshire Police on October 1, 2009, and has now been sentenced at York Crown Court.

He was put on the sex offenders’ register for life and was given a life-long sexual offences prevention order restricting his future behaviour and contact with children.

Detective Constable Sam Pearson, the investigating officer, said relatives of the two women and the officers concerned with the case were pleased with the sentence.

He said: “Although this cannot make up for the mental and physical suffering the victims have endured, it is a consolation to them that the matter has been dealt with seriously by the police and the courts, and he has been given a substantial prison sentence which reflects the severity and gravity of the offences.”