March 2014 Camping child abuser jailed A Scarborough man who “groomed” a young girl during drug and drink fuelled camping trips has been jailed for eight years. Paul Henry Agar, 49, seduced his victim, aged between 14 and 15, during the camping trips, despite his 17-year-old partner being left at home pregnant with their child. Agar, of Briercliffe, was said at York Crown Court to have made his young victim idolise him before persuading her to agree to having sex and to losing her virginity to him. The jury also heard that a 16-year-old boy, who became aware of what was going on, was warned by Agar that, if he told anyone, his pregnant partner would kill herself. Agar, who had denied five charges of sexual activity with a child, two of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child, was found guilty by the jury on Friday March 14 of one indecent assault, and five charges of sexual activity. He was cleared of one charge of indecent assault, the remaining charge of indecency with a child being withdrawn during the trial. The offences took place during 2003 and 2004 when Agar was aged around 36 and took up to 12 youngsters, both friends and family, on camping trips to the North Yorkshire Moors and elsewhere, when various drugs and alcohol were on offer to the members of the party. The court heard that the matters came to the attention of the authorities in 2012 after the woman disclosed what had happened to her husband and initially in a letter from her to her family in which she “poured her heart out”, but which at the time was ignored. Agar, who couldn’t understand why the allegations had been made, claimed that bar a few cans and cannabis for his own use, no other substances were taken on the trips. He told the jury that following the break-up of his previous marriage he had started going out with his own son’s former 17-year-old girlfriend, that she had soon become pregnant and that they are still together with their child. Jailing Agar, Recorder Amanda Rippon told him: “You are a child abuser”.