April 2022 Paedophile carried out ‘harrowing’ sex abuse on boy and girl A paedophile pensioner who carried out ‘harrowing’ sexual abuse on a young boy and girl has been jailed for 17 years. Peter Byrne violently raped both of his victims on multiple occasions. The victims bravely came forward to police after the 76-year-old appeared in court for another sexual abuse offence Byrne, who is originally from Calderdale but now lives in Irlam, was first convicted of indecently assaulting girls under 14 back in 1970 when he was 25. He also admitted further sexual abuse offences in the late 1980s. In 2016, at the age of 69, he travelled 150 miles to sexually attack an eight-year-old girl only to find out he had been talking to an undercover police officer. Byrne was jailed for 30 months for that offence, but his court case prompted two more of his victims to contact the police. Last month he was convicted of a series of serious sexual offences against them dating back to the 1980s and early 1990s. Byrne was jailed for offences of rape, buggery and indecent assault. His own barrister David Hall said the pensioner would be ‘a frail old man’ when he becomes eligible for release after serving two-thirds of his 17-year jail term. Judge Andrew Hatton imposed an extended licence period on top of his jail sentence after concluding he was a dangerous offender. He added the victims’ impact statements made ‘harrowing reading’ and by putting them through a trial Byrne had continued abusing them by requiring them to be cross-examined. “Both of them have been significantly impacted by your offending,” he told Byrne via a video link to HMP Leeds. “Both of them clearly found the experience of giving evidence in their own ways very difficult.” The court heard that Byrne plied the young girl with alcohol and also recorded some of the abuse using a camera. He said Byrne had used violence of a gross nature against both complainants, who can not be identified for legal reasons, and they had both suffered a severe psychological impact. Byrne is already subject to a lifelong notification requirement as a sex offender as a result of his previous crimes May 2016 Perverted pensioner travelled 150 miles to have sex with 8-year-old girl A perverted pensioner who travelled 150 miles in the hope of having sex with a eight-year-old girl after chatting with her ‘dad’ on a TV chatroom is facing years behind bars. Peter Byrne, 69, was caught out as the girl did not exist and her dad ‘Kev’ was an undercover police officer. Father-of-two Byrne made the trip from his Salford home to meet ‘Kev’ at Toddington Services on the M1 but insisted that his desires see just ‘fantasy’. Police found a camera in his car which contained photos of him pleasuring himself while watching children being ‘seriously sexually abused’. A jury of ten women and two men took just under 14 hours of deliberation to find Byrne guilty of facilitating a child sex offence by a majority verdict of ten to two. Upon hearing the verdict, which followed a retrial, the paedophile repeatedly shook his head. It was later revealed that Byrne had earlier admitted making indecent images of children.