A RAPIST who stole the childhoods of two girls and left them with decades of trauma has been jailed for 25 years.

Kenneth Cooper claimed that one of his victims had wanted to have sex with him and they had slept together with her consent from her sixteenth birthday.

He was considerably older than her.

He denied abusing the second victim and both, now women, had to go through the ordeal of giving evidence against him.

A jury convicted him of all charges at the end of a week-long trial at York Crown Court and today he is behind bars.

Speaking after sentencing, investigating officer Detective Sergeant Hannah Davies said: “I commend both victims for their bravery in coming forward and making a report to police and reliving a truly horrendous period in their lives.

“The abuse that Cooper subjected them to when they were young girls is truly sickening and has left both of them with trauma and pain that they are still dealing with to this day.

"The fact that Cooper denied the abuse he committed against one victim and claimed the abuse he subjected the other victim to was a consensual relationship, meaning both women had to undergo a week-long Crown Court trial, just shows the depths abusers will go to to try and get away with their depraved behaviour.

“The sentence handed to Cooper will never bring back the childhoods that he stole from these women. However, I hope it provides some sense of justice being delivered and closure, so they can both move on to happier times.”

Cooper, now 82, of Chapel Meadows, Gilberdyke near Goole had denied six charges of raping a girl under 16 years old and three charges of indecent assault of a girl under 14 years old.

Following his conviction on all charges and sentence, he will be on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.

He started the crimes in the 1970s. But the two girls didn't speak out for decades.

The first contacted police in 2017 and started the investigation that led to today's sentence.

While specialist detectives from North Yorkshire Police's CID were building the case against Cooper, they discovered she was not his only victim.

They spoke to the second girl, now a woman, and she revealed what he had done to her.

Det Sgt Davies said police had had help from other organisations.

She said: “Due to the fact that Cooper’s crimes extended over two decades, a number of agencies have played a key role in bringing about this outcome.

"I thank them all for their diligence, hard work and persistence that has resulted in putting Cooper where he deserves to be, behind bars.”