June 2009

JAIL TERM FOR SCHOOLGIRL SEX PERVERT

A former Gilberdyke businessman has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years after carrying out a catalogue of vile sex attacks on school girls aged between seven and 11.

Trained market gardener Duncan McKenzie Fraser (50), systematically abused four girls over a 21-year period from 1971 to 1992.

He assaulted the girls sexually, moving from one to another as he moved around East Yorkshire, usually simulating sex or inciting them to perform acts on him, Hull Crown Court was told on Monday.

In one case he threatened a child that she would be taken away from her family if she were to report the attack – terrifying her into silence.

He pleaded guilty to eight charges of indecent assault and seven charges of indecency with a child. He had originally faced 30 charges – the rest were left to lie on file.

The abuse took place in a number of towns and villages throughout the East Riding, including Beverley, Withernsea and Gilberdyke, where Fraser had lived at the time.

Judge Michael Mettyear described the attacks as “disgusting”, leaving at least one victim with terrible emotional consequences.

He told Mr Fraser: “You might have appeared to others a straightforward, hard-working family man. The reality was you were a living a lie.

“You were a persistent serial abuser of young children. Four children in all. All of their lives have been blighted in one way or another by your conduct.”

Married man Mr Fraser, now Oban, in Scotland, but formerly of Gilberdyke, was brought up in Withernsea. His first offending began when he was still a teenager. He attacked a girl under 11 in Withernsea while babysitting between 1973 and 1976.

Mr Fraser attacked a girl on a beach trip between 1976 and 1978, asking her to tell her family a dog had been sick on her in the car if anyone expressed concerned about her stained clothing.

Later he moved to Neville Avenue in Beverley and committed a string of assaults in the area between 1983 and 1986 on a girl under 10. He would simulate sex on her and she had to fight him off. The girl gave a victim impact statement which explained that although she felt no hatred for Mr Fraser, she had decided to make the complaint to protect others.

His family then moved to run a petrol filling station at Kirkburn, near Driffield, where he ran a market garden at the rear and assaulted one of the victims in a greenhouse between 1986 and 1988.

He then moved to run a market garden at Gilberdyke. He incited a girl under 10 to perform a sex act on him in a greenhouse. She was the victim of four offences between the ages of seven and nine from 1988.

Mr Fraser was never questioned at the time and had built a new life away from Gilberdyke before the case was brought last year. Detectives travelled to Scotland to build their case. His crimes went undetected until one of his victims reported it to the police

Mr Fraser did not make eye contact with his victims’ families, who sat in the public gallery to see him jailed.

Defence barrister John Thackray said Fraser had lost his job and his wife of 30 years was now divorcing him.

He said: “It is almost 20 years since he committed any offence.”

The judge ordered that Fraser should be jailed for a total of seven-and-a-half years and be put on the national Sex Offenders’ Register for life. He was also given a Sex Offender’s Prevention Order and banned from working with children.

n Speaking outside court, DC Stephen Crawford of Humberside Police said: “I welcome today’s sentence. It is through the courage of the complainants that the courts have been able to give this sentence. “