April 1997

Former cabbie Bill Middleditch lives a normal life with his wife and 19-year-old son. 

But neighbours in Chadwell Heath, Essex, will be horrified to learn what sort of man the 56-year-old, 16-stone pervert really is.

He has served jail sentences for raping a 12-year-old girl, indecently assaulting two young sisters and taking explicit pictures of children. 

In 1978 Middleditch was jailed for eight years after a four-day trial at Ipswich Crown Court heard sickening details of his terrifying sex attack on a young girl. 

And he was given a five-year jail sentence at Snaresbrook Crown Court in November 1989 after he admitted indecently assaulting and taking indecent photographs of an eight-year-old girl and her sister, aged six. 

Middleditch’s name will not go on the paedophile register unless he volunteers it because his crimes were committed before the new law. 

He says his life would be made a misery if his name was on the register. 

“I just want to live a normal life,” he says. “If my name went on the register it would stop me trying to make amends for what I have done. 

“I would be driven out anywhere I moved, and that would just make it harder for me to live like a normal person. 

“I made mistakes and paid for them. Now I have a right to start again.” 

“I try to keep myself to myself. I say hello to the kids in the street and they say hello to me.

But I never go out alone.

My wife is always with me so I can’t be accused of doing anything wrong. 

Lounging in a filthy dressing gown and puffing on a cigarette, he said: “I have a gun and I’ll shoot anyone who tries to hurt my wife and son.”