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Pensioner Henry Rendle jailed for child sex crimes

Jul 25 2010 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

A PERVERT pensioner has been jailed for seven years for sex crimes which devastated the lives of two young girls.

Henry Rendle, 76, has been brought to justice decades after molesting two schoolgirls. He even threatened one of his victims with a sword to ensure she didn’t tell.

The former long-distance lorry driver and voluntary worker denied 10 sexual offences against the two children.

But a Teesside Crown Court jury found him guilty on all charges after less than two hours’ consideration. The jurors convicted him on seven counts of indecent assault and three of indecency with a child.

Most of the sex attacks date back to the 1970s, when Rendle was living in the Stockton area.

The jury heard he subjected his first victim, the subject of eight of the 10 charges, to repeated and prolonged abuse.

When she said she might tell her family, he threatened her with a swordstick – a cane concealing a sword – it was alleged during the trial.

He sexually assaulted the second girl on one occasion.

The girls suffered in silence for years with depression, anxiety and flashbacks, the abuse casting a shadow over their lives. For one of the women, her marriage broke down and she felt she couldn’t let her children out of her sight. The other lost a job because of depression.

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