A child abuser jailed for 20 years got off ‘lucky’, according to a victim who wanted to kill him after being forced to have sex with a dog.
The ‘foul smell’ of the animal-filled flat where Anthony Fowler, 74, committed his crimes still haunts his victims, aged between six and 10 at the time in the 1990s.
Fowler kept numerous cats, budgies and dogs, including an Alsatian-Wolf mix he forced one of his victims to penetrate after he had ‘demonstrated’ it himself.
He would often gag the boy, telling him to ‘shush’ before sexually abusing him, leaving him ‘so scared at bedtime, as I knew something was going to happen to me’.
‘All I wanted as a child was to have a family, or normal happy childhood, which was not for me’, he said in a victim impact statement read out in court.
Despite being ‘scared to death’ by Fowler, who threatened him if he ever spoke out, the boy did try to alert his mother, only to find she didn’t believe him.
Reading his victim impact statement in court, he said: ‘One day I did tell my mother, but she did not take my word for it and I had to stay another week going through more abuse’.
It took another 30 years, during which he suffered flashbacks, made suicide attempts, and continued wetting the bed, before bringing Fowler to justice.
He had wanted to chase Fowler and kill him after seeing his attacker on the bus, but his wife asked him to stop before reporting the abuse to police herself.
Facing Fowler, who sat shaking his head, the man said:’I have suffered for more than 30 years. I want my life back.
‘I knew what this man was capable of, especially when I saw him that day. You’re lucky – I could have killed you. But I didn’t.
‘We need to keep our children safe from predators like him. I read the article, and he has been doing it since the 60s.
‘I need to move on with my life, and I hope you rot in hell.’
Fowler’s other victim, who was six at the time, recalled ‘screaming and begging’ his mum not to send him back to the ‘living nightmare’ of the sexual abuse.
He told the court: ‘I wished it was a terrible dream or not for it all to be real. Sadly it was all a real nightmare.
‘I was so ashamed of how embarrassing it was, I could not even raise this to my family.’
Fowler, of Duncombe Road, Upper Holloway, has now been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of committing eight sex offences against the two boys in the early 1990s.
This includes 16 years, plus one year on license, for committing buggery against the older victim.
He got four years for the indecent assault against the younger victim, which the judge described as being committed for Fowler’s own ‘sexual gratification’.
Until now, Fowler has escaped time behind bars for his history of sexually abusing children.
He forced his penis into a four-year-old boy’s mouth in 1969, he lured another four-year-old with sweets before ‘fumbling’ him in a garage in 1978, and he sexually assaulted a boy, nine, in 1980.
He also exposed his penis to a woman, whose crotch he grabbed outside her home, in 1974.
Fowler received probation orders for those offences. He received an eight-week prison sentence suspended for a year in 2019 for possession of a bladed article.
Sentencing him yesterday, Judge Cohen said: ‘I’m entirely satisfied on the evidence on the evidence I have heard from [the victim], along with the victim’s statement that was read out, and the depraved nature of the offending against him, that he has been caused extremely severe psychological harm by your conduct.’
The judge added: ‘Could I thank the two victims for their courage in coming forward. This was a serious case and everyone recognises how difficult it must have been. One hopes the outcome can provide you with some closure.’
Fowler’s offences against the older victim would have been considered rape of a child under 13 if they were committed now.
Law changes also meant that a charge of buggery for having sex with his own dog had to be dropped because it was not illegal at the time.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
