A former soldier who sexually abused a boy and a girl in the 1970s and 1980s was jailed for nine years on Monday, March 14, 2022.
Peter Crane, 65, from Billington near Leighton Buzzard, was told by the woman victim that she had been a vessel so he could act out his darkest thoughts.
Looking at him as she read her Victim Impact Statement at Luton Crown Court, the woman said: “I was just an object, not a human being, I was garbage.
“As an adult I still struggle every day with physical contact.
“You have never been sorry for what you have done. You are too selfish.”
Crane, of Billington Court, Billington, Leighton Buzzard, appeared for sentence having been convicted of indecent assault of a girl aged between 3 and 8 on at least 10 occasions, indecency with a girl aged 3 to 8, between the mid 1980s and early 90s.
He was also convicted of indecent assault on a boy aged 8 to 10 and indecency with the same boy aged 8 to 10 in the early to mid 1970s.
In mitigation, Veronica Ramsden said he had served in the army in Belfast and Germany and then worked as a mechanic. Ms Ramsden said Crane, who still denies the offences, was a hard-working man who has never claimed benefits.
She said he was lonely and isolated. Judge Steven Evans told the woman victim: “I am lost in admiration and courage for the way you stood there and said those things.”
Jailing Crane, he told him: “You have an entrenched sexual interest in children.”
The judge said because he is an offender of concern he will be on licence for a further 12 months after the jail sentence has expired. He must register as a sex offender for life.
