AN award-winning foster carer, who was once lauded on national television, has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years for child sex crimes.

Bill Rathbone, 64, who once appeared on TV show Tricia with his now-deceased wife Brenda for his work fostering 72 children, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court on Monday for abusing two girls.

One of his victims told in a statement how she could not bring herself to have a relationship with another man after the abuse and was resigned to never being a mother. She attended the court building, but could not be in the same room as her abuser.

Rathbone, a bar manager from Middlesbrough, had admitted having sex with one girl, but claimed it was consensual and she was over the age of consent.

The court was also told Rathbone's wife knew about him abusing a girl, but did nothing about it.

Rathbone, of Norham Walk, Ormesby, was found guilty of 14 child sex abuse charges against two girls by a jury last month. There had been an earlier trial, but the jury could not come to a decision and he was tried again after a second victim came forward.

Paul Cleasby, prosecuting, said Rathbone had prevented one of his victims from going to the police by repeatedly threatening to kill himself if she told the authorities that he was a paedophile.

She thought she would not be believed because Rathbone had been honoured by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council with certificates for fostering, featured in local newspapers for his good work and had appeared on television in 2002.

In a statement read out in court one of the victims said: "The anger and hurt and hatred for myself has made me consider killing myself on a number of occasions. I have self-harmed, I have scars on my arms and previously I have starved myself.

"I have a fear of men. I have never experienced having a life with anybody. I probably never will. I have been robbed of the fundamental right to a normal life. I will never have children and this has hurt me for many years now."

His other victim said: "I am a really anxious person and it is so hard to come forward and drag this back up."

Sentencing Rathbone, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, said he had been contacted by friends and other fostered children testifying to Rathbone's good character. However, he told Rathbone: "You are and remain in complete denial and as such you remain a threat to girls."