A drug dealer “bully” who took two women hostage and tortured one has been extradited from Thailand to the UK to face justice and jailed for 19 years.
Durham Crown Court heard Vincent Agar, now aged 80, used a knife, boiling water, cigarettes and tools to carry out “deplorable” acts against one woman and threatened to shoot another in Middlesbrough between 1998 and 2000.
Both women said that his actions have been bothering them ever since.
Agra, who was previously jailed for wounding a friend, denied wrongdoing but was found guilty of offenses including grievous bodily harm with intent and false imprisonment.
Prosecutor Rebecca Brown said Agar was a crack cocaine dealer in his 50s when he targeted the first woman – a vulnerable drug addict in her 20s – in “revenge” after stealing from her.
He tied her up unconscious at a house in Clarendon Road and began assaulting her with a weapon, the court heard.
In addition to assaulting her, he threatened to break her arm in conduct that was “deplorable” and “torture-like,” Brown said.
Agar also pretended to make a phone call in which he said the woman’s body would soon be ready for collection.
The court heard that the woman managed to escape after about eight hours by climbing through the window when Agar went out to buy drugs.
But he recaptured her at a later date and held her prisoner at his Parliament Road home for three days, carrying out further assaults which left her with burns and other injuries, the court heard.
He also hacked off a piece of her hair which “could just be part of sadistic behaviour”, Brown said.
Vincent Agar was jailed at Durham Crown Court [BBC]
Brown said Agar jailed a second woman to “shut her down” after seeing a young woman tied to a radiator in his Parliament Road home as a “sex worker”.
He threatened to shoot her if she told anyone what she had seen, before leaving an hour later, the court heard.
In a statement read to the court, the first lady said she was a low-level drug addict when Agar appeared as a “knight in shining armour”.
But he “vastly escalated” her addiction and held her prisoner and tortured her, the court heard.
She said the violence had a huge impact on her life and that it was “just the beginning”. [her] downward spiral”.
The woman said she had the “best night’s sleep in years” after learning Agar had been convicted.
“These events have haunted me for years and I think I can move on with my life.”
‘Decades’ of crime
A second woman said her “biggest regret” was not getting help for the “girl” she saw tied up in Agar’s flat, and she was horrified by his threats to silence her.
She also said he was a “weak” drug user at the time and had “little faith in the police”.
“I have lived with this guilt for decades and always hope that the girl is okay.
“If I can meet him I will apologize and try to explain why I didn’t do anything.”
She said her imprisonment has made her unable to trust people and is locked in any building.
The court heard Agar had 40 offenses on his criminal record, including injuring a woman he held captive for three days and harming two other women at the same time, for which he was jailed for four years and five months.
He unsuccessfully appealed against that sentence, with an appeals court judge saying his actions constituted “systematic cruelty” and were “nothing short of barbaric”.
‘psychological terror’
In mitigation, Sophie Johnstone said Agar’s life was controlled by his “constant use of crack cocaine”, but he “tackled his addiction” and moved to Thailand, where he started a family.
He had been living in Maret, Koh Samui, Surat Thani province before his extradition.
Judge Richard Bennett said Agar was a “violent and sadistic bully who reveled in having power over the most vulnerable women in our society”.
He said Agar used his position and reputation as a drug dealer in central Middlesbrough to “control vulnerable women”, with his actions involving the first lady “sick and cruel” and the use of “psychological terror”.
On a second occasion he held her hostage for days in a “fortress” of his flat, left her permanently scarred and cut her hair to “humiliate and humiliate” her. The judge said.
Agar “got away” with his “brutal” crimes for more than 20 years but his crimes had “now caught up”, the judge said, and the 80-year-old will either die in prison or be released at an age when he is “no longer a danger to anyone”.
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