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A PAEDOPHILE has had his jail sentence increased to more than 13 years after a woman broke her silence of half a century.
John Arthur Fairburn, now 74, abused her for years, starting when she was nine years old, Nick Adlington, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.
Some years after he stopped abusing her, he sexually assaulted two other girls, starting when they were seven. He was jailed for five and a half years months for that abuse in November 2020.
Only when the woman saw reports of that case did she feel able to go to police and reveal what Fairburn had done to her when she was a child.
I wish I had spoken up when I was younger, she said in a personal statement. It may have saved others.
No apology can make up for his depraved actions.
She said the shame and embarrassment she suffered because of Fairburn at times still overwhelmed her some days.
He took advantage of my innocence and naivety for a long period of my childhood. I felt so ashamed when the significance of what he had subjected me to, she said.
She had managed to speak to her GP when she was a young woman and received counselling but found it so difficult to speak about what had happened to her that she had stopped the counselling early.
Fairburn, formerly a farmer in Deighton south of York, pleaded guilty to eight charges of indecently assaulting the woman, starting when she was under 13 and after a gap of a couple of years, when she was aged 13 and 14.
The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris said: This was wicked offending. It must be met with condign punishment.
He jailed Fairburn for eight years, to be served after he finishes the sentence he received in November 2020 for the abuse of the two girls. On that occasion, he pleaded guilty to 10 charges of sexual assault and one of inciting a child to sexual activity.
Fairburn is now serving a total sentence of 13 and a half years and will have an extra year on parole when he is released. He was also made subject indefinitely to a sexual harm prevention order and a restraining order banning him from contacting the three victims, and will be on the sex offender register for the rest of his life.
For him, Kevin Blount said: He feels great personal shame for what he has done. There is evidence of genuine remorse.
Fairburn had admitted what he had done to the police and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity before the courts in both cases.
The abuse of the two girls that started when they were seven was over a period of four years, York Crown Court heard in November 2020. One of the girls had had difficulties before he began abusing her.