August 2014 Paedophile who “stole the childhoods” of young girls he abused is jailed for 10 years A paedophile was jailed for 10 years after being convicted of abusing four young girls over a 10-year period. Robert Pritchard, 66, carried out the decade long campaign against his young victims in Bootle between the 1960s and 1970s and was only caught when they got up the courage to report him after nearly 50 years of living with the consequences. Pritchard, of Queen Elizabeth Court Hatton Hill Road, Litherland, denied all the charges but was found guilty by a jury of 14 counts of indecent assault. The career criminal, described has having a lengthy record of conviction and has served jail terms for tobacco smuggling and arson, occasionally shook his head as two of his victims read moving statements about how he had affected their lives. One said: “I have kept an awful secret from the people that I love the most in the whole world for most of my life. “This monster dictated and conditioned me so I wouldn’t speak about my feelings or emotions, just to do as I was told. “He has taken away every normal emotion I should have felt and replaced them with fear, self loathing and worthlessness. “I was thrown into an adult world well before my time and threatened into keeping a secret most of my life. I have grown up with a hatred of men and always felt dirty and worthless.” Another, said: “Psychologically for me life has been like living in a black hole with darkness on all sides. I scream in the darkness and nobody hears me. “He stole my innocence and replaced it with real fear and a great sadness. Nobody has the right to make another person experience such pain. “To any person out there who has been hurt because I wasn’t brave enough to do this earlier I’m truly, truly sorry.” Both women said they had been driven to the brink of suicide by what happened to them with one describing how as a young girl she stood on a bridge considering jumping into a canal but was only stopped by the knowledge that no one would know why she did it. Judge Alan Conrad, QC, said that any sentence he could impose was limited by the law at the time of the but if Pritchard’s crimes had been committed today he could have been jailed for life. He said: “Over a long period of time you regularly and repeatedly abused your victims. “The verdicts of the jury showed you used them for years when they were young and vulnerable for your own perverted gratification in a vile fashion. “You have shown no remorse for what you did.” He jailed Pritchard for total of 10 years and said he would be on the sex offenders register for life.