December 2001 Justice catches up with girls’ 1970s sex attacker A MAN found guilty of rapes and indecent assaults going back more than 20 years was beginning a 13-year jail sentence last night. Paul Richard Cotgreave, 53, had been found guilty at an earlier hearing of seven charges of rape and indecent assault on two young girls in the 1970s. At Chester Crown Court yesterday he was told by Judge Huw Daniel: “These were awful offences. The effect they must have had on these young women must have been huge.” Cotgreave, of Stanney Oaks, Ellesmere Port, was arrested after his victims came forward two dec- ades later. The first victim told the court she had been raped and indecently assaulted by Cotgreave both as a child and in her early teens. She broke down while giving evidence, saying: “It has been getting harder and harder to live with what happened as I get older.” She told the court that, during the incidents, Cotgreave had told her: “It’s the best thing since sliced bread.” Simon Mills, prosecuting, said the victim had undergone a therapy course to help her to come to terms with what had happened. Following the initial allegation, a second victim who had been indecently assaulted as a child by Cotgreave came forward. The court heard that after the assault this victim had run from the scene saying she was going to tell somebody. When the allegations had been put to Cotgreave he had tried to excuse his behaviour by claiming he had been abused as a child, the court heard. Judge Daniel said Cotgreave possessed an unhealthy interest in young girls. Cotgreave will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.