A 76-YEAR-OLD Bradford man has been jailed for 22 years after a judge branded him a sexual predator of “monstrous proportions”.

Judge Neil Davey QC said Michael Cannon’s apparent good character had masked and facilitated “a career of sexual offending” against three young girls which spanned four decades.

“The reality is that you are a sexual predator of monstrous proportions,” the judge told an emotionless Cannon.

The pensioner was convicted by a jury of a catalogue of sex offences against his three victims, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, and yesterday he was brought back to Bradford Crown Court for his sentence.

During the hearing, one of the women who had been indecently assaulted by Cannon as a child bravely read from her own victim impact statement and described how her life had been ruined at the age of seven.

“I will never forgive him for what my family has gone through,” she said.

She said she felt like she had been serving a prison sentence and it was now Cannon’s turn to do his.

Another complainant, who was raped by Cannon, said in her statement that she suffered horrible flashbacks of telling him to get off her.

“He deserves to go to hell,” she said in the statement read by prosecutor Soheil Khan.

Cannon, of Boltby Lane, Buttershaw, Bradford, was found guilty at end of his trial of a series of offences including rape, attempted rape and indecent assaults spanning a period between 1969 and 2016.

The court heard that back in the 1990s he had escaped prosecution after one of the victims was interviewed by the police, but he was not charged with any offences.

The court heard that after abusing one of the young girls Cannon “showered her with gifts” to secure her silence and told her it was their secret.

Judge Davey said it was a feature of the case that Cannon regarded his victims as “sexual playthings”.

The judge, who commended the courage of the complainants in coming forward, said the harm caused by Cannon over many years was incalculable.

He said the victim statements made harrowing reading and added: “They tell a story of lives damaged at best or ruined at worst all because of your pitiless pursuit of your own sexual gratification.”

Cannon, who had no previous convictions, will have to serve half of his 22-year jail sentence, but the judge also added an extra two years of prison licence onto his sentence because he was now classed as “an offender of particular concern”.

He was also made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and he will have to register as a sex offender with the police for the rest of his life.

Speaking after Cannon was sentenced, Detective Inspector Amanda Middleton, said: “We would like to thank the victims for their bravery in coming forward and hope they will take some comfort in this outcome.

“We also hope it will encourage other victims of abuse to engage with our specially trained officers, who will investigate every report sensitively and thoroughly to bring perpetrators to justice.”

One of Cannon’s victims bravely spoke out to the Telegraph & Argus following his sentencing.
She said: “He will probably die in there. I hope he feels as lonely and scared and vulnerable as I’ve been.
“I’m not the victim anymore - I’m a survivor.”
Speaking about the impact on her life, she said: “Really, I’ve been served a life sentence. I feel like I’ve been serving a sentence for 48 years - my life stopped.
“I didn’t have a childhood, I thought all men were the same. He took everything away from me.”
The woman said it had impacted her relationship with her children and she hadn’t been able to be a “proper mum”, adding: “He’s a horrible, horrible creature."