‘Cruel, sadistic and depraved’ paedophile, 86, jailed for devastating child sex attacks


An 86-year-old “dangerous paedophile” has been put behind bars for sickening child sex attacks he committed almost half a century ago.
Cedric Agent has been branded “cruel, sadistic and depraved” by his victim, who bravely faced him in court to outline the lifelong impact of his vile behaviour all those decades ago.
At Newcastle Crown Court the pensioner, who could have faced life behind bars if he had committed the offences today, has been jailed for seven years with lifelong sex offender registration and sexual harm prevention order requirements.
Mr Recorder Jamie Hill QC told him: “The offences are now between 40 and 50 years old. I am restricted by the maximum sentences there were available in the 1960s and 1970s.”
Agent, of Oswald Street, South Shields, admitted six offences of indecent assault on one victim, who was just a schoolgirl at the time.
Despite formally admitting what he did to the youngster, the court heard the pensioner is still not truly sorry for it.
His own barrister said: “I would struggle to persuade the court that he is genuinely remorseful.”
The court heard the victim had screamed during the first attack, but Agent had put his hand over her mouth and told her to “shut up”.
She felt unable to breathe during the attack, which was just the start of a lifetime of trauma she suffered because of her ordeal.
At the sentencing hearing, the woman stood in the witness box, just metres away from the man who devastated her life, and made a heartbreaking statement.
She told the court: “My spirit was broken. I had no confidence and no self-worth, I lost my dignity.
“I felt dirty and ashamed and that it was my fault.”
She called Agent a “dangerous paedophile” and added: “He is cruel, sadistic and depraved. There are no depths to which he will not sink.”
The woman told the court it was only when she contacted Northumbria Police to make an official complaint and have Agent taken off the streets that she started to feel better about herself.
She said: “I realise this is when my dignity returned, more than half a century after he stole it from me.”
Mr Recorder Hill paid tribute to the “dignified way” the victim read her statement in court and told Agent: “I hope it may have brought home to you, to some extent, the devastation that your offending has caused and how devastating this sort of behaviour in general has for victims.”