A PENSIONER who was so ashamed of sex offences he committed 30 years ago that he tried to hang himself has been jailed for seven years.

Frank Pratt, 74, confessed to police who found him hanging at his home.

He said he had made many suicide attempts in the years since he sexually abused two girls more than 30 years before.

Pratt, of Pallister Court, Middlesbrough, who suffers from heart disease, strokes and epilepsy, wanted to pay the ultimate price, said Stephen Constantine, mitigating, at Teesside Crown Court. Pratt, who has impaired hearing and walks with the aid of a stick, pleaded guilty to five specimen rape charges and an indecent assault. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for life and banned from unsupervised contact with anyone under 18. The court heard he made full admissions to police about preying on the girls who were 13 and 15, said Christine Egerton, prosecuting.

Pratt tried to hang himself on August 30 last year, and the police were called.

Miss Egerton said: "He told the police that he had sexually abused two girls when they were young, and that was why he was doing it. He said that he had sexual intercourse many times with one girl and he tried it on with the other girl but she was not having it."

Mr Constantine told the judge: "Since he committed these offences, he has tried to take his own life a number of times over the years.

"What more remorse and contrition can there be when the police arrive at his house and they find he has tried to hang himself? Without any complaint being made by either girl he tells the police full and frank admissions.

"He was reluctant to have any kind of court hearing which would have either of them giving evidence. He has now essentially lost everything.

"A psychiatrist reports that because of the offences he committed all those years ago every time there is any pressure on him he attempts to take his life.

"He has lived with this every day, month and year for over 30 years."

Judge George Moorhouse told Pratt: "People who behave in this appalling way must face reality and a lengthy prison sentence."