Norfolk man jailed for 'wicked' abuse against three girls

Peter Esherwood was found guilty of eight counts of sexual abuse against three victims - who were all under 10 at the time -in Great Yarmouth between 1988 and 2006.

The case came to court after complaints initially made in 2011 were followed up in 2017 and resulted in Esherwood being charged with sexual abuse against the three.

Esherwood was found guilty of eight offences following a trial at Norwich Crown Court in January this year which was held in his absence after he fled.

Norwich Crown Court (Image: Peter Walsh, Newsquest) But Esherwood, who flew to Thailand from the UK, was brought back to this country earlier this year after being tracked down by police.

On Friday, he was sentenced to a total of 18 years - made up of 16 years imprisonment and two years on licence - following his convictions for five indecent assaults, one count of indecency with a child, one count of sexual assault of a child under 13 and another of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Peter Esherwood (Image: Norfolk Constabulary) Jailing Esherwood, Judge Anthony Bate said these were "wicked acts" committed against these young girls to "satisfy your sexual desires".

Judge Anthony Bate (Image: Newsquest)

He described Esherwood's offending as "severe and enduring" with each of the victims "courageously" stating how it had impacted both "their childhood and adult lives".

Before Esherwood was sentenced, the court heard statements from all three victims, now adult women.

The first said Esherwood was her "fear and my nightmares" and told how the abuse "almost broke me".

But she said she would not live her life as a victim and was a "survivor".

The second victim said she looks back "with sadness" at the "little girl" she was then and "never knows how my life should've been".

She said her childhood was "taken from me" and her innocence "shattered".

The third victim suffered "night terrors" as a child and "hated being on my own".

She has self-harmed and said her scarring is a "constant reminder" of the abuse she had suffered.

Esherwood, of Harfreys Road, Yarmouth, was also made the subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and put on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Juliet Donovan, mitigating, insisted he was remorseful for what he had done was so sorry and hated himself. 

She said he was a "bad man" at the time of the offences, when he was drinking and taking drugs, which is why he had not really understood the "harm that he was doing".