A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed for 11 years for carrying out a campaign of sickening abuse against two children.

Ernest Fisher, of Kings Road, Halstead, had denied six counts relating to a girl in the 1960s, and six counts relating to a boy in the 1970s.

A jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on all 12 counts after a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court last month and he was sentenced on Wednesday.

The 75-year-old’s male victim, who was under 15 at the time and cannot be named for legal reasons, thanked the police, judge and jury who heard the case.

He said: “We have our justice. I’m glad it is finally over and we have had somebody listen to us.

“I didn’t care whether it was one year, ten years or 30 years.

“It’s the fact that we were believed, something was done about it and it’s gone through the courts swiftly.”

The charges included seven counts of indecent assault, two counts of attempted rape and one count each of indecency with a child, a serious sexual assault and cruelty to a person under 16 years old.

The jury had heard how the abuse happened in Halstead and at a second address in Essex.

Fisher told his male victim he was teaching him the “birds and the bees”

and would beat him if he refused to participate.

The female victim was abused regularly – once in a kitchen sink while the paedophile chatted to a passerby through a window.

She also told the court that Fisher became angry after unsuccessfully trying to rape her.

The victims only went to police in 2013 having been told by friends they were unlikely to be believed.

The man said changing attitudes about sexual abuse since the Jimmy Savile revelations had helped.

He said: “I had been bringing it up for years.

“I started to mention it when I was 18.

“They said I hadn’t got a hope in hell.

“It was only this Jimmy Savile stuff. If it wasn’t for that, then it still wouldn’t have been believed.”

He added: “I think the police have done an absolutely fantastic job.

"Our judge was great.

“He said he never showed any remorse and never admitted anything.

“He said he could show no leniency.”

An Essex Police spokesman said: “We are pleased Fisher has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for these truly evil offences which he had denied.

“It took the victims great courage to come forward and speak to us and see this through the court, and we have nothing but praise for them.

“Fisher will now have a long time in jail to reflect upon the totally unacceptable nature of his depraved actions.”