January 2013

Families hit out at ‘disgusting’ sentence for Newport paedophile

THE families of children abused by a paedophile who avoided a jail sentence because of his low intelligence said they are disgusted with his sentence.

Christopher Lee, 40, of Abbey Road, Newport, was found guilty by a jury last year of committing seven charges of indecent assault against a girl under 13, and one charge of sexual assault on another girl under 13.

The offences against two victims took place between April 2001 and 2010 before Lee was arrested in November 2011.

Yesterday, Cardiff Crown Court heard Lee did not appear at the trial in person after psychiatrists found he was not intelligent enough to give evidence, instruct counsel or mount a defence.

Judge Daniel Williams said doctors found Lee was “in the bottom 0.3 per cent of the general population” for intelligence.

Judge Williams said: “Had he [Lee] been fit to stand trial, he would have faced a lengthy prison sentence.”

He sentenced Lee to a two-year community order with supervision, disqualified him from working with children and made Lee subject to a sexual offences prevention order.

The families said it felt like their children had been the ones sentenced, not Lee.

Lee abused the girls after working his way into their families’ social circle, even attacking one of them in their own home while her father was in the room.

One mother, whose daughter was abused from the ages of five to nine, said: “I don’t think justice has been done. Those kids have gone through hell, my daughter is too scared to go out on her own.

“We’ve got to live with that now, I think it’s disgusting he’s only got a community order.

“He’s held down the same job for 20 years and can drive, would he really be able to do all of that if he was as they portrayed him in court? It was a complete betrayal of trust.”

Another mother, whose daughter was abused between the ages of six and 11-years-old, said: “He abused my child in our own home. I feel like he’s got away with it.

“I said in my victim statement that she used to sit with her dad and cuddle with him but now she won’t give him a hug even if he asks or give him a kiss before she goes to bed.

“I think we have been treated unfairly, the girls have been made to feel like they’re prisoners and it’s really started to get to us.

“I am on tranquilisers now and had to go off work for five weeks and it is causing a strain on my marriage.

“He’s ruined our lives, it’s wrong, absolutely wrong.”