June 2012 Four years jail for sex predator fire officer A RETIRED Humberside fire officer has gone from hero to zero after being exposed as a paedophile who attacked two children. Andrew Cowie, 63, of Victoria Road, Beverley, was commended for saving a child’s life after a road accident and a pensioner after a fire. But he hid a terrible secret all his working life – he had attacked children 35 years ago. He sexually violated one girl and mercilessly beat a boy, but warned both of them he would hurt them if they ever breathed a word. Sentencing Cowie to four years in prison at Hull Crown Court Judge Mark Bury said: “The children are badly mentally scarred by what you did to them 30 years ago. Had these been a modern-day offences the sentence would have been much longer than they currently are. Custody is inevitable due to the serious nature of this offending and the lasting effect on the victims.” Cowie, who played rugby in Beverley, nearly got away with his attacks- but for the break-down of one of his victims who sought counseling asking himself “why me?” The answer was Cowie was a controlling, foul-mouth brute who could barely control his temper seeking out the vulnerable who were unlikely to complain. He attacked two different victims, on separate occasions exposing himself as a controlling paedophile. Cowie, whose had attracted huge support from his family, rocked on his heels and shook his head as the foreman of a jury at Hull Crown Court announced he was guilty. It took seven hours to find him guilty of three charges of indecent assault on a girl and one charge of cruelty and another of assault on a boy. He was cleared of six other charges of indecent assault. Members of Cowie’s family openly wept in the public gallery at the disgrace, but Cowie was stone-faced showing no remorse unmasked as a pervert. He cruelly tried during the trial to put the blame on his victims, saying they had made up malicious falsehoods. He said the accounts were fantasy and deliberate deceit to cover failure in their own personal lives. Hull Crown Court heard his actions had destroyed the childhood of the two children. One turned to gambling on arcade machines stealing money from his parents. The other turned to school studies in an effort not to face up to what Cowie had done. Cowie, 63, had lived in Bridlington over a seven year period from 1977. Cowie had a contrasting ability to care for others – as a paramedic for 17 years after working in the fire service, but hid inside him a perverted lust for children. He ordered the girl to wash his privates and touched her indecently. He repeatedly kicked the boy in the stomach, through him against a wall and hit him on the head. The woman told the jury at one stage she ran off into fields and created her own imaginary home of safety in woods, her secret place” to escape the feelings of what Cowie had done. His violent streak continued in later life when police formally caution him from common assault in 2002 and 2006 Judge Mark Bury said how people responded to sex abuse depended on their age gender and their environment. He said it was not uncommon for people to delay reporting cases. Judge Bury told Cowie he had been convicted of three offences of indecent assault on a girl and two offences of assault on a boy. Cowie’s close friends, who have done their best to believe his innocence, wept and sat silently outside court after he was taken to cells and a waiting prison van.