Carlisle child sex abuser Arthur Cook jailed for 10 years
A Carlisle man has been jailed for 10 years for a string of sex assaults on two children dating back to the 1970s.
Arthur Cook, 66, had denied nine charges of indecent assault, indecency with a child, and sexual activity with a child at the city's crown court.
He had admitted 18 counts of possessing indecent images of children at an earlier hearing.
The court heard the earliest offences dated back to 1976, with others committed between 1994 and 2004.
The court was told the offences came to light after one of the victims approached police in May 2012.
During subsequent searches, officers found more than 3,000 indecent images of children on devices owned by Cook.
'Sense of justice'
Sentencing him to 10 years in jail, Judge Paul Batty QC told Cook he would be on the sex offenders register for life.
After the hearing, Det Con Andrew Donnelly of Cumbria Police, said: "The victims in this case found the courage, years after their abuse, to come forward and speak to the police.
"We believe that other children may have suffered at the hands of Cook and we appeal to them to come forward.
"The sentence handed down should give his victims some sense of justice and hopefully some form of closure.
"We hope they can try and move on from the terrible ordeal that they suffered.
"The length of sentence reflects the horror of these offences and, quite rightly, Judge Batty sees prison as the only place for him."