January 2017 This violent Tunbridge Wells paedophile abused children for 30 years A “violent” 80-year-old from Tunbridge Wells has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for sex abuse dating back more than 50 years. Mark Humphreys, of Cherry Tree Road, was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court this afternoon (January 26) after being convicted last week following a trial. The pensioner, also known as Tony, committed two offences of rape, four of indecency with a child, four of indecent assault and two other serious sexual offences on children as young as three years old between July 1965 and March 1996. Judge Martin Joy said: “You were convicted on overwhelming evidence of a course of serious sex offences spanning a period of more than 30 years. “All of the offences were committed between 1965 and 1996, and you are now 80 years old. “You took advantage of each victim and made sure that they did not tell anyone, by using violence and other threats. “Then they did not report the incidents to the police at the time. “Your defence was that the victims had lied and had told each other to invent false accounts of sexual abuse. You said a police officer had also lied and each of the victims were forced to relive their experience.” Humphreys was given sentences of 18 years, 10 years and 1 year to run concurrently, as well as being placed under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which means he cannot work with children under 16 or be in contact with them while unsupervised. Judge Joy then read out extracts from impact statements written by the victims, who remain anonymous. ‘He stole my innocence and my childhood’ “He stole my innocence, and my childhood,” one said, “And not satisfied with sexual abuse, he also had to resort to violence, physical and mental abuse. “And that has stayed with me all my life. “When I have a partner I feel anxious, checking their mood. “The hardest part was keeping this inside of me – as nobody believed me. This affected my life so much, and now I do not have any expectations of being treated as a decent human being. “It has prevented me from achieving what I could have done in life.” ‘I will never forgive him’ “This abuse has taken all my trust away from me in relation to men,” another statement said. “I suffer from panic attacks and I started ripping my hair out. I have low self-esteem and suffer from confidence issues. “What happened to me has affected my relationships, and I am angry I was not given support when I first reported it. “I will never forgive him. What happened to me plays on my mind every day.” The final statement said: “I am completely numb, and have been for years. I cope by blocking it out and refusing to think about it. “But it is always there in the background.” Investigation Humphreys, now 80, carried out the offences at addresses in Tunbridge Wells and in Sleaford, Sussex. During the trial the court heard how he would ‘reward’ his victims with biscuits or milk after abusing them, while warning them not to tell anyone. He took Polaroid snaps as he forced one young girl to perform a sex act on him, and held another girl above his head, telling her to urinate in his mouth. He forced candles into the bottom of another. Humphreys was arrested after one of his victims approached police in March 2015. As well as the sexual abuse the victim alleged he would beat her, leaving her with welt marks on her legs and backside. After an extensive investigation, Humphreys was charged by Kent Police with a number of offences, relating to three victims, who were all under the age of 16 at the time.