Life 17 times for sex monster

Glyn Kenyon will serve a minimum of 23 years.

And only now can the Telegraph & Argus tell the full story of the horrific crimes of the former Bradford man.

Kenyon, pictured, a maggot farm and stone yard worker, was yesterday found guilty of the attempted Murder of a Halifax woman he randomly attacked in the street and was sentenced to life in jail.

But it was the former Holme Wood man's despicable acts against two young girls - spanning a terrible 15 years - that left him facing 16 life terms after a judge said the youngsters - now adults - faced "a continual diet of fear, forced sex and depravity."

For legal reasons, the T&A was prevented from telling of his heinous crimes, how the brave women gave evidence against him and how he was tracked by police, until after the unconnected attempted murder trial finally concluded last night at Bradford Crown Court.

Those involved in the sex abuse case have described it as the worst of its kind they have ever encountered.

One lawyer said he believed Kenyon's crimes - unveiled at a trial at Leeds Crown Court earlier this year - ranked him alongside Fred and Rose West and Moors Murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady as the country's worst paedophiles.

Last night the senior investigating officer in the case, Detective Superintendent Bob Bridgestock, said the catalogue of offences committed was the worst he had come across in 29 years of policing.

"He stole the childhood of two young girls," he said. "To call him an evil monster is too kind.

"He has shown no remorse whatsoever for his behaviour and has tried every avenue possible to blame others.

"The sentences given reflect the depravity and the atrocities this evil individual carried out," he said.

And the sentencing judge exempted the jurors who had to listen to details of Kenyon's horrific crimes from jury service for the next 50 years.

Kenyon was convicted of the sex offences following a three-week trial at Leeds Crown Court earlier this year.

The victims' father watched intently as the jury found Kenyon, now 42, guilty of 40 charges including eight counts of rape, six of a serious sexual offence and six of indecent assault.

He was also found guilty of grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, wounding, making threats to kill, attempting to procure one of the girls for prostitution and taking obscene photos of her.

During the course of the trial Kenyon, formerly of Grayswood Crescent and Knowles Lane, Holme Wood, admitted three other counts, one of a serious sexual assault and two of child cruelty, which were ordered to remain on file.

The jury of five men and seven women heard from the young women about how Kenyon's sickening abuse included: seriously sexually assaulting the older one when aged just five or six; twice making the younger girl pregnant - the first time aged just 12 - after raping her and then causing her to miscarry by hitting her in the stomach with a sledgehammer; forcing her to perform perverted sex acts; branding the girls with a heart-shaped piece of heated metal and carving his initial on to them using a hypodermic needle; holding a flame from a lighter to the older girl and also pouring lighter fluid on her before setting it alight;; taking obscene pictures of her and making her have sex with another man.

The older girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said at first she had believed Kenyon's behaviour was ''normal'' and was later too afraid to speak out.

The woman told the jury that Kenyon branded heart shapes on her using metal heated in a gas cooker until red hot.

On another occasion she said Kenyon used a needle to carve his initial G on her.

Kenyon claimed the allegations were a ''total and malicious pack of lies to discredit me''.

He claimed sexual contact took place when the girls were in their mid-teens and with their full consent.

He had written obscene notes only at the instigation of his wife who dictated them to him as part of a ''stupid fantasy game'', he said.

The similarity between them and the allegations was ''just a coincidence''.

Defended by Simon Lawler QC, he said there were discrepancies in the girls' stories and that other than his wife the only person he had had sex with during his marriage was a woman he met at a swingers' club.

Kenyon claimed he went to Blackpool, where he was arrested after the allegations against him first came to light, because he thought his wife had also gone there and took an assumed name to avoid the ''poll tax'' rather than the police investigation which he was unaware of.

But it was the girls' version of events jurors believed and just over seven hours after retiring they returned the 40 guilty verdicts.

As well as the 16 life terms the sentence - believed to be the heaviest ever handed down in such a case - included jail terms totalling 109 years for the other convictions.

Judge Alistair McCallum ordered that Kenyon not be eligible to apply for parole for at least 16 years.

Kenyon's co-defendants from the first case, his wife Carol, now 41, of Scarborough, and father-in-law John William Crossley, 62, of Illingworth, have also been jailed for offences committed against a teenage girl.

Carol Kenyon admitted cruelty to a child and gross indecency with a child. She was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Crossley was jailed for two years and nine months after admitting one sexual offence and being found guilty of two more. Both will have to remain on the Sex Offenders Register for the rest of their lives.

The trial finished in February but the details can only be revealed today following the end of Kenyon's trial for the attempted murder of a woman in Halifax five years ago.

Last night, Kenyon was also found guilty of attempted murder on a Halifax woman Jean Maguire.

Judge Robert Taylor said Kenyon should serve a minimum of seven years in prison and it should run consecutively with the sentences passed in February.