section_path: Early life/Adolescence
section_name: Adolescence
paragraph_text: Adolescence
  
  By 1957, Fred and his brother John frequently socialised at a youth club in nearby Ledbury, where his distinct and guttural Herefordshire accent marked him as a " country bumpkin ". He aggressively pestered women and girls, whom he objectified as sources of pleasure to be used as he saw fit, and would abruptly approach and fondle them. When a girl accepted his advances, she would find his sexual performance unsatisfying, as his primary objective was his own gratification.
  
  At age 17, Fred suffered a fractured skull, a broken arm, and a broken leg in a motorcycle accident. He was unconscious for seven days and walked with braces for several months; because of this incident, he developed an extreme fear of hospitals and became prone to fits of rage. Two years later, Fred suffered a further head injury when a girl he groped on a fire escape outside the Ledbury Youth Club punched him, sending him falling two floors.
  
  In June 1961, Fred's 13-year-old sister, Kitty, told her mother that Fred had been raping her since the previous December, and had impregnated her. Fred was arrested, and freely admitted to police he had been molesting young girls since his early teens and asked: "Doesn't everybody do it?" He was tried on 9 November at Herefordshire Assizes. Although disgusted by her son's actions, Fred's mother had been prepared to testify in his defence. Immediately prior to her scheduled testimony, Kitty changed her mind and refused to testify, and the case collapsed. Much of Fred's family effectively disowned him, his mother banished him from the household, and he moved in with his aunt Violet and uncle Ernie at Daisy Cottage in Much Marcle. By mid-1962, Fred had reconciled with his parents, but not with most of his family.
  
  By 1957, Fred and his brother John frequently socialised at a youth club in nearby Ledbury, where his distinct and guttural Herefordshire accent marked him as a " country bumpkin ". He aggressively pestered women and girls, whom he objectified as sources of pleasure to be used as he saw fit, and would abruptly approach and fondle them. When a girl accepted his advances, she would find his sexual performance unsatisfying, as his primary objective was his own gratification.
  
  At age 17, Fred suffered a fractured skull, a broken arm, and a broken leg in a motorcycle accident. He was unconscious for seven days and walked with braces for several months; because of this incident, he developed an extreme fear of hospitals and became prone to fits of rage. Two years later, Fred suffered a further head injury when a girl he groped on a fire escape outside the Ledbury Youth Club punched him, sending him falling two floors.
  
  In June 1961, Fred's 13-year-old sister, Kitty, told her mother that Fred had been raping her since the previous December, and had impregnated her. Fred was arrested, and freely admitted to police he had been molesting young girls since his early teens and asked: "Doesn't everybody do it?" He was tried on 9 November at Herefordshire Assizes. Although disgusted by her son's actions, Fred's mother had been prepared to testify in his defence. Immediately prior to her scheduled testimony, Kitty changed her mind and refused to testify, and the case collapsed. Much of Fred's family effectively disowned him, his mother banished him from the household, and he moved in with his aunt Violet and uncle Ernie at Daisy Cottage in Much Marcle. By mid-1962, Fred had reconciled with his parents, but not with most of his family.