Paedophile Hugh Ferguson threatened to cook girls
A paedophile who threatened to cook his victims in a pie to scare them into keeping quiet about his abuse has been sent to a secure mental hospital.
Teesside Crown Court heard Hugh Ferguson assaulted girls aged between five and 11 over a 20-year period.
Ferguson, 77, from Thornaby, admitted seven charges of indecent assault.
Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC told Ferguson - who has dementia - that he was a danger to young girls and might never be released.
The hearing was told that Ferguson, of Havilland Way, threatened to kill three young girls in the 1980s and cook them if they told their parents.
In August last year, he lured three nine-year-old girls upstairs in his house to play on his rowing machine and treadmill and then assaulted them, the court heard.
Judge Bourne-Arton said: "Over a considerable period of time, certainly since 1988, you have carried out numerous offences of sexual abuse against young girls.
"The victims started from five to 11, and you have throughout this time shown a very unhealthy, predatory instinct towards young girls; you have shown little or no remorse, and you have throughout sought to blame them."
Adrian Dent, mitigating, said that Ferguson had suffered a brain injury years ago, and had since been diagnosed with vascular dementia and a personality disorder.
Ferguson was given an indefinite Hospital Order under the Mental Health Act.