CHILD MOLESTER JAILED FOR FOUR YEARS

Source : 11/12/2002 Northampton Chronicle and Echo

A child molester who persuaded his young victim to lie for him in court has been jailed for four years.

The man, 38, of Daventry, was convicted of eight indecent assaults on a boy after a three-day trial. He was also found guilty of trying to pervert the course of justice.

The man had first appeared in court in 2000 after the victim's mother found indecent photographs of her son. Police searched the man's home and found images of the boy on a computer, some naked and some partly clothed.

The man was charged with taking indecent photographs and was convicted of the offences after trial at Daventry Magistrates Court.

At a sentencing hearing before Northampton Crown Court, Pearl Willis, prosecuting, claimed that the man coaxed the boy to give evidence that there was an innocent explanation for the pictures.

The man had alleged that it was the boy's idea that he should model for an underwear catalogue.

Appearing on the witness stand, the victim said the man had spoken to him many times about what he should say in the case.

He said: 'He said we should get our stories straight.'

The victim also said that the man had indecently assaulted him many times between 1996, when he was 13, and 1999.

The man, who did not give evidence at his crown court trial, told police that there was no truth in the boy's allegation.

His co-accused, a woman, aged 31, of Daventry, was cleared of four charges of indecently assaulting the boy.

She was acquitted and the jury also returned a not guilty verdict against the man's charge of aiding and abetting the woman to commit the offences.