April 2001

Child sex attacker jailed

A child abuser frightened his young victim into silence by threatening to kill her mother, York Crown Court heard.

The girl was only four or five when Malcolm Lawrence Degruchy, 55, began up to three years of sexual attacks on her and her sister, said Tim Bubb, prosecuting.

He used the death threats and told them it was their secret so they would submit to his actions and not tell. But a third sister eventually persuaded the pair to tell their mother who then refused to let the former Harrogate District Council gardener into their home.

The sisters cried with relief as Degruchy was jailed for six years and put on the sex offenders register for life. The court was not told where the abuse took place.

The judge said that the sisters had to live “day in day out” with the memory of what had been done to them and would do so for the rest of their lives. Mr Bubb said that the sisters had been unable to go to the police when they told their mother.

But after years of counselling, the younger sister was getting flashbacks and was advised she had to bring the matter into the open.

Degruchy, now of Ferndale Road, Falmouth, Cornwall, pleaded guilty to 11 indecent assaults, three gross indecencies with children and a bail breach. The younger girl was six and the older 12 when the abuse ceased.

Richard Reed, mitigating, said Degruchy was deeply ashamed and wanted help to ensure he never offended again.