August 2012  Paedophile jailed for abuse as girl speaks out A young woman has spoken out after a paedophile who subjected her to years of rape and sexual abuse was jailed for 18 years. Michael Fairbairn, 42, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court after he was found guilty by a jury of raping and sexually abusing a young girl for seven years in West Yorkshire. He had previously spent four years on the run after being initially arrested in 2008, fleeing first to the Spanish capital Madrid and then flitting across Europe. Jailing Fairbairn, Judge Scott Wolstenholme told him that he had caused the girl “appalling psychological harm” during his reign of terror, which began when she was just seven years old. The girl said: “Giving evidence in court and being cross-examined was a horrendous experience, but it was just something I had to do. “When the first two verdicts were read out and they were guilty, I stopped listening to the rest. “I was just stunned. I’m still trying to get my head round it now.” Fairbairn, of the Waterfront, Knottingley, would make the girl watch pornographic films as he carried out the abuse When police seized his laptop, it was found to contain 280 sickening images of sexual abuse, with nine pictures at the worst level and 133 at level four. Fairbairn raped the girl on many occasions when she was aged between 12 and 14, threatening her to keep quiet about the abuse and saying her mother would “kill her” if she found out. The attacks stopped when the girl turned 15. But in July 2007, he hid a camera in her bedroom in a bid to spy on her.