A “TRULY evil” paedophile who physically and sexually abused children in Bicester has been jailed for 12-and-a-half years.

Former swimming instructor Terence Sturgeon-Clegg, now of Irvine in Ayrshire, was sentenced yesterday at Oxford Crown Court for 13 counts of indecent assault on children as young as three in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

The 63-year-old was also convicted of three counts of child cruelty, which included beating youngsters with belts and making them hold burning hot chips.

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Sturgeon-Clegg denied all the charges but was found guilty last year after a six-week trial that his victims said was deeply traumatic.

Yesterday, prosecutor Michael Roques read out a statement from one of the six victims, in which the woman wrote: “He has ruined my life, leaving me feeling dirty and unclean.

“I find it impossible to trust people.

“I am unable to hold down a job because I’m unable to mix with others.

“I have faced a lifetime of anti-depressants.

“Even today I am on four different types – and I have spent much of my life in psychiatric units.”

Another of Sturgeon-Clegg’s victims told Judge Ian Pringle at Oxford Crown Court how she had been left with post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the abuse.

But in her statement she added: “Now that the matter has come to an end it is like a weight has been lifted off me.

“I can now start to move forward with my life.”

One of Sturgeon-Clegg’s male victims described him in an emotional statement read out in court as “truly evil”.

He said: “I hope at some point he will reflect on the horrific damage he has inflicted.

“And I hope at some point he is able to tell the truth.”

Defence barrister Nicholas Syfret said since 1987 when he left Bicester, his client – who is in a wheelchair – has not committed any further offences. And he added: “He has not been in the best of health for many years.”

Judge Pringle told Sturgeon-Clegg his crimes had a “devastating” impact on his victims and said he would be on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.


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