New pictures have revealed a glimpse inside a 'House of Horrors' where a pensioner kept two women prisoner and tortured them in his grim dungeon beneath a trap door. Vincent Agar, 80, tortured his two victims between 1998 and 2000 when he was a drug dealer. He installed a 'trap door' which he could lock to prevent the women from escaping his dungeon.
Victim Testimonies
One victim told how he threatened to shoot her after she saw a girl tied to a radiator. Agar fled the UK and went on the run for a quarter-of-a-century before being found in his bolt hole in Thailand. He was extradited last year and was jailed for 19 years this week.
Horrifying Photos Released
Police have now released horrifying photos of his dingy flat in Middlesbrough, where he carried out his warped crimes. Photos show blood stains on the walls and what appeared to be clumps of hair on the floor of his flat in Parliament Road. The trapdoor at the top of the stairs leading down to his grim dungeon where he tortured his victims is visible in the images.
One of the women told the court how Agar cut her with hot knives, burned her with an iron and a crackpipe gauze. On another occasion, he beat her so hard with a metal hoover pole that it broke. He also threatened to break her fingers with a wrench, punched her, poured hot kettle water over her and cut off her hair and burned her with cigarettes.
During another ordeal, Agar kept the woman prisoner for three days while carrying out a series of vile crimes. She told how she saw a 'torture chamber' in his flat which included a wooden chair fitted with ankle and wrist straps. The second victim was detained in Agar's flat and threatened with a gun after she saw a 'scared' girl tied to a radiator.
Elaborate Security Measures
Agar installed three doors which he used as an 'elaborate security arrangement' to dispense his 'own sort of justice'. He was found guilty of six charges including grievous bodily harm, false imprisonment, threats to kill and drug dealing.
Jailing him at Durham Crown Court, Judge Richard Bennett branded Agar 'a violent and sadistic bully' telling him: 'Your offending has now caught up with you. You revelled in holding power over some of the most vulnerable women in our society. Your flat was like a fortress. You had installed a number of doors to the interior to prevent access. They also prevented escape.'
Judge's Remarks
'I reject your evidence that these doors were installed for either draft exclusion or because you were being burgled. These were classic security measures of a drug dealer designed to prevent the police getting into your flat before you could dispose of drugs. That anti-police security also created a barrier which prevented [first victim] from escaping. You got away with committing these serious offences for 25 years and this has now caught up on you.'
Detectives at Cleveland Police began investigating Agar's sick crimes in 2019 before he was finally brought to justice. Agar had been living in Koh Samui, Thailand, before he was arrested and extradited to face the charges. Sophie Johnston, defending, said Agar's addiction to crack cocaine was 'his downfall'. Agar showed no reaction as he was jailed.
