Inside Vince Agar's 'fortress': trapdoor, telescope, and a 'torture chamber'
Sadistic bully Vince Agar has been jailed for 19 years at Teesside Crown Court after turning his Middlesbrough flat into a 'fortress' complete with a 'torture chamber', trapdoor, and telescope to control and brutalise drug-addicted vulnerable women.
Disturbing images expose the lengths to which Middlesbrough torturer Vince Agar would go in his twisted attempt to dominate vulnerable women. Throughout proceedings at Teesside Crown Court, jurors were presented with photographs of Agar's Parliament Road 'fortress', captured by officers around the period of his offending. They revealed additional doors he had fitted, weapons left on surfaces, and surveillance gear he employed to watch over those trapped under his drug-dealing grip.
They can now be published after Agar was eventually held accountable for the litany of brutality he subjected two women to. On Thursday, he received a 19-year prison sentence with Judge Richard Bennett branding him a 'sadistic bully', who 'revelled in holding power over some of the most vulnerable women in our society.'
Agar's background and previous offences
Agar was raised in Middlesbrough and grafted on oil rigs and at ICI. He resided with his parents before settling down with his wife Mary on Fleetham Street. Throughout the trial, he couldn't remember when he wed Mary, but did acknowledge conducting an affair with a woman - another casualty of his violence. In the horrific assault for which he was imprisoned in 2001, he battered her with an iron bar, glass bottle, hammer, and a wrench, hacked off half her hair, and burned her with cigarettes and scissors.
This victim looked on as Agar was sentenced on Thursday for offences which displayed 'chilling' parallels to her own nightmare. Agar had informed Teesside Crown Court during his trial that when Mary uncovered his crack cocaine use, around the age of 51, he departed their home and relocated to Parliament Road. Agar operated his drugs enterprise from the first-floor flat, dealing cocaine to those trapped by addiction, including numerous exploited women and girls.
The location and surveillance setup
Situated in the heart of Newport's red light district, the neighbourhood at that time was ravaged by widespread drug use, violent crime, and assaults on sex workers. Marilyn Surtees, who operated a drop-in centre for exploited women and girls at the time, previously told Teesside Live: 'I remember there were a lot of rapes and girls being beaten up, lots of violence. There was a lot of naming and shaming of the kerb crawlers but I don't think there were many arrests for violence. The girls either didn't report it or they weren't taken seriously.'
Agar's first-floor flat stood on the corner of Parliament Road and Longford Street. During the period of his offending, he maintained a pair of binoculars, a telescope, and a tripod positioned by the window which overlooked Union Street directly. This was employed, the prosecution stated, to monitor and maintain control over those whose drug addiction he exploited.
The victims' ordeals
Both Agar's victims were drug addicts. One was a sex worker who purchased her drugs from Agar. The other sold drugs on Agar's behalf. She told the court that Agar supplied her with free drugs and she would go out 'grafting' for him while Agar spent time with his mistress. When she stole from him, Agar unleashed his twisted retribution.
Left defenceless by drugs, the woman was tied up with rope before Agar subjected her to hours of savage beating, initially wielding a metal hoover pole until it broke. He pressed heated knives against her arms, threatened to crush her fingers with a wrench, and made calls to an unidentified person in her presence, telling them to come and dispose of her body.
In the second harrowing assault, he held her captive for three days. He once again used knives, along with sticks, buckles, and belts. He heated his crack pipe and deliberately burned her on the upper arm, and branded her on her back, possibly with an iron. Both ordeals left permanent scarring. At sentencing, Judge Richard Bennett told Agar the attacks were 'on any view, sadistic and amounted to the torture of her.'
The 'torture chamber' and extra doors
During the trial, jurors heard she had discovered a 'torture chamber' within the flat, which housed an 'old fashioned wooden chair' fitted with brown leather straps for the ankles and wrists. The second of Agar's terrified victims revealed that Agar threatened to shoot her after she witnessed a 'scared' girl, believed to be a sex worker, bound to a radiator. The court was told, through her witness statement, how she has carried guilt and anguish for failing to report the incident to police. The judge informed Agar: 'Such was your reputation at the time, she was too terrified to tell anyone apart from her boyfriend, and she discouraged her boyfriend from intervening, for fear of what you may do.'
The jury was additionally presented with photographs of supplementary doors Agar had fitted in his flat, including one positioned behind the front entrance and a 'trapdoor' at the top of the stairs. Prosecutor Ms Brown had suggested the additional doors formed part of an 'elaborate security arrangement' to administer his own brand of justice. She said: 'You didn't want people coming in because of your drug-dealing and because you were being violent to women in there and keeping them against their will?'
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Bennett informed Agar: 'Your flat was like a fortress. You had installed a number of doors to the interior to prevent access. They also prevented escape. 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 [victim] from escaping.'
Drug dealing and power over victims
It was put to the court that Agar flogged his drugs almost entirely to sex workers at the time. Ms Brown challenged him in court: 'You didn't care about these girls at all did you? Did it ever bother you what they were doing to afford the drugs they were using? Did you ever worry about your customers' safety. Did you like the fact these girls were indebted to you? Did you like that they were reliant on you? Did you like the power over them?'
Agar featured in the Evening Gazette when he relocated to a new housing scheme in Middlesbrough town centre. Mary and Vince became the first shared owners to settle into the £9million St Paul's development in Newport through Erimus Housing's shared ownership scheme. Several years afterwards he relocated to Thailand, 'met a lady, she had a baby, I brought the baby up, so I stayed in Thailand'.
Justice finally served
As officers compiled evidence, Agar attempted to evade justice, declining to return of his own accord. An extradition procedure was initiated and he was transported back to Middlesbrough to answer for his historical offences. During the entire legal proceedings, Agar persisted in inflicting trauma on his victims - his denials meaning they had to relive their ordeals in a trial spanning more than three weeks. The jury was not fooled by his deceit, and in March he was found guilty of six out of the eight charges brought against him. As Judge Bennett declared when sentencing Agar to 19 years behind bars: 'You got away with committing these serious offences for 25 years and this has now caught up on you.'
