21-year sentence for child rapist

A CHILD rapist serving a 21-year extended sentence for a campaign of abuse has been handed another extended sentence after being convicted of abusing other children.

Former colliery security guard Ronald Preddy was handed his first 21-year sentence in 2016 after being convicted of a campaign of rapes and indecent assaults against boys going back to the 1990s.

Following that conviction further victims came forward and he stood trial again earlier this month but the 78-year-old refused to leave his prison cell to take part in the hearing.

Preddy, who lived for many years in Seven Sisters but latterly in Dunraven

Street in Glyncorrwg, was convicted by a jury of 21 counts of rape and gross indecency against a boy and a girl carried out between the 1970s and 1990s. He refused to appear in the dock when the case came back to court for sentencing on Thursday.

Prosecution barrister Ian Wright read out impact statements from Preddy’s victims.

When he was jailed in 2016 Preddy was described by a judge as a “remorseless sexual predator”. Before that, in 2004, the defendant was sentenced to eight years in prison for separate rapes and sexual offences.

Sentencing the defendant on this occasion recorder Christopher Clee QC described him as an “unmitigated and unreconstructed paedophile”. He said he was satisfied Preddy should be classed as a dangerous offender.

Ronald Dennis Preddy was sentenced to a 21-year extended sentence comprising 18 years in custody and an extended three-year licence period. He must serve two-thirds of the custodial element of the sentence before he can apply for release but it will be for the Parole Board to decide if he is safe to be released.

The sentence runs from the day it was passed.