‘Smirking’ pensioner tried to intimidate witness into having 30-year-old child abuse charges dropped

Pensioner Graham Vickers targeted the girls at his Harehills home in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They between the age of seven and 12 at the time.

He was given a 10-year jail sentence at Leeds Crown Court this week, made up of eight years’ custody, and two years on an extended licence.

Retired kitchen porter Vickers, who is now 68, is deaf and needed a sign-language interpreter during the recent trial. He was cleared of two charges, but found guilty of two counts of indecent assault.

Vickers, now of Bolton Street, Doncaster, has a previous conviction linked to the case – attempting to pervert the course of justice – after he tried to intimidate a witness.

The assault victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, attended court with the intention of reading out their victim impact statements but neither could bring themselves to face Vickers in the dock.

Prosecutor Richard Woolfall said: “It has had a profound effect on both of them, they are ladies now in their early 40s and they still live with the effects of what he has done to them.”

The court heard that he sexually touched one of the girls and smirked at her after she wriggled free. He then bought her toy to keep her quiet after she threatened to go the police. The second victim said that Vickers also touched her inappropriately. She has suffered nightmares and night terrors since.

The judge, Recorder Catherine Silverton told Vickers: “You behaviour and impact has overshadowed the rest of her childhood and the rest of her life right up until the point she went to the police. The harm on your victims is significant, both these women have been profoundly affected.

"It’s affected their ability to have relationships, their self esteem, their sleep and their mental wellbeing.”

Mitigating for Vickers, Andrew Semple said of Vickers: “There’s real evidence that this man operates at a very simple level (intellectually).

"He lives a particularly closed life. It’s likely that prison will be extremely isolating.”