December 2005

PAEDOPHILE TARGETED 13-YEAR-OLD

PAEDOPHILE piano teacher Jon Fowke continued to deny he had abducted a vulnerable 13-year-old Island girl to subject her to a horrifying sexual assault even as he was led away to start a six-year jail sentence.

Just as he had done 12 years before, when he was imprisoned for a year for indecently assaulting girls aged just nine and 12, he forced his latest victim to re-live her ordeal by giving evidence in court after he pleaded not guilty.

The judge who sentenced Fowke at Portsmouth Crown Court on Monday, said the London musician, formerly of Sandown, continued to deny he carried out the attack and remained a high risk to children.

Fowke, 59, of Doncaster Road, Edmonton, London, a father of two, was convicted on December 1 after an eight-day trial of grooming the girl for sex for a month with a string of more than 300 text messages and calls; abducting her and taking her to a secluded Parkhurst Forest clearing; and sexually and indecently assaulting her.

The jury cleared him of rape.

Fowke was sentenced to a total of six years in jail, banned from ever taking a job that brought him into contact with children and placed on the sex offenders’ register for life. In addition he was made subject to four years extended licence after release from jail. That means if he offends again within seven years of his release from custody — which could be as soon as three years from now — he faces being locked up to serve the remainder of his jail term, plus any new sentence.

Det Con Iain Robertson, the officer who led the investigation that snared Fowke, said after he was sentenced: “I am relieved that he will not be a danger to young girls, albeit only for a few years. He will be very closely watched after his release from jail.

“The girl he picked on was very vulnerable and she was incredibly brave in giving her evidence and in standing up to two days of cross-examination.

“We are very grateful for the co-operation of the Crown Prosecution Service, which made it possible for her to give her evidence by video link and for providing an expert witness to assist the prosecution.

“He groomed the girl after meeting her at a mainland holiday camp where she was on a family holiday. The centre in question did not even have a record of his name and I believe it is time that entertainers who work with children are subject to criminal record checks to ensure this does not happen again.”

Judge Derwin Hope said Fowke had been identified by the probation service as remaining a high risk of re-offending.

But Fowke’s barrister, Michael Selfe, said: “There was a 13-year gap in his offending and if that was to happen again, he would be in his 70s.”