Paedophile, 83, to pay £100 for forgetting to tell police he was going on holiday
Cottingham pensioner Harry Rendle was jailed in 2010 for offences against two girls in the 1970s
David Spereall
A convicted paedophile has to pay more than £100 after forgetting to tell police he was going on holiday.
Henry Rendle, 83, was convicted of seven counts of indecent assault and three of indecency with a child against two girls from Teesside in the 1970s.
His 2010 trial heard how he had subjected one of his victims to prolonged and repeated abuse, and even threatened her with a swordstick - a cane concealing a sword - if she told her family.
He was jailed for seven years, but released in 2015 and subsequently moved to Cottingham.
This week, Beverley Magistrates Court heard how Rendle failed to comply with the requirements of being on the Sex Offenders Register, which he was ordered to sign for life in 2010.
By law, anyone on the register must tell police if they stay anywhere other than their own address for a week or more.
But Rendle, who appeared in court on Wednesday wearing a suit and a rucksack, "forgot" to tell the authorities that he was spending seven nights over the Christmas period in Staffordshire with his partner last year.
The court heard how Rendle's breach of the rules only came to light when he mentioned the trip in passing to a police officer during a routine visit three months later.
He pleaded guilty to breaching the terms of the register, but magistrates "stepped outside" of their sentencing guidelines to allow him to walk free, as they accepted the offence was "an oversight".
Henry Rendle was released from prison in 2015.
Mitigating for him, John Seagrave said: "He spent that week with an elderly female companion of 80 years of age at the Premier Inn in Lichfield.
"The police officer assigned to monitor him came to see him in March. He told her that he was intending to go to Lichfield over the Easter period to attend some religious services there and he explained he'd been there at Christmas.
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"I'd ask you to put this offence down to the forgetfulness of old age.
"The purpose of making people register is to enable police to keep an eye on potential offenders.
"You've got to bear in mind the offences that led to his imprisonment, were not committed by this 83-year-old man. They were committed by a man in his 40s during the 1970s."
Granting him a conditional discharge, bench chair Susan Akrill said: "We've listened to everything that's been said and we've taken into account all the circumstances.
"The circumstances are that these offences were committed some 45 years ago. There has been no issues in your life with his sort of thing since.
"We also accept that just in general conversation, you quite freely admitted to the police lady that you'd actually been away for eight days.
"I think that this was just an oversight in the grand scheme of things.
"We are stepping outside of our own guidelines because we're going to give you a conditional discharge. The conditions are that you don't go away again without telling the authorities."
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Rendle replied, "Absolutely not". He was ordered to pay £85 in costs and a victim surcharge of £20.
At his trial seven years ago, Rendle had accused his two victims of colluding to concoct false allegations about him.
Both women suffered from depression, anxiety and flashbacks in the years that followed the abuse.
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