Shropshire border pensioner jailed for child sex offences
A Shropshire border pensioner has been jailed for 10 years for a string of sex offences against two young girls.
Derek Byfield admitted a charge of rape against one of the girls in the 1970s.
The 71-year-old, of Far Forest, near Cleobury Mortimer, also admitted five counts of sexual activity with another child in more recent years.
He was jailed for 10 years at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
The court was told that Byfield raped one of the girls when she was 13.
Judge Jim Tindal said he gave her sweets afterwards and threatened her that if she got pregnant he would beat her up and make it look like someone had attacked her.
Judge Tindal said his most recent victim had also been under the age of 16.
The court heard he had sex with her on more than one occasion.
Judge Tindal told Byfield: "On one occasion you didn't have a condom on and had to take her to a pharmacy to get the morning after pill."
Miss Abigail Nixon, representing Byfield, said he was a supportive and devoted husband and suffered with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
Sentencing Byfield to 10 years in prison, Judge Tindal told him: "Because of the medical condition you have there is a significant risk you will die in prison.
"You took away the childhood of two vulnerable young girls.
"The responsibility for it is entirely yours."
Byfield was also given a sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offenders' register for life.
