June 2013

Pervert pensioner who ‘ruined’ the lives of young girls spared jail

AN OAP who ‘ruined’ the lives of the young girls he molested has been spared jail so he can look after his sick wife.

Frederick Anthony Roy Hodder, who is already on the sex offenders’ register, admitted five counts of indecent assault on a female which took place in Bridport in the 70s and 80s.

Hodder, aged 75, was imprisoned in 2000 for similar offences against a different girl which relate to the same period of time.

Dorchester Crown Court heard how Hodder, who lives in sheltered accommodation in Yeovil, committed the indecent acts referred to in the latest case on a girl when she was aged under 13 and when she was aged 13 to 15 years old.

Prosecutor Megan Topliss said the abuse happened once or twice a month over a number of years. She said the impact upon the life of the victim in the latest case had been ‘substantial’.

But in mitigation, John Dyer said he thought Hodder had a ‘limited understanding of the seriousness’ of the case.

Judge Roger Jarvis said the decision as to how to punish Hodder was ‘difficult’. He said that he had to sentence on the guidelines in place at the time the offences were committed, but had it been today the situation would have been different. He said: “The maximum sentence doesn’t even touch what the guidelines say today. There is a whole different approach to these offences these days than back in the 70s.”

He said it would cost the state to give Hodder’s wife the ‘significant’ amount of care she would need if he were imprisoned. He said deciding what to do was a ‘very difficult decision to make’.

Sentencing Hodder to a three year probation order, he said: “Judges like me often have to read victim statements.

“And a consistent theme resonates through these documents – how what it is that happened to them as a child has blighted the rest of their lives. Your behaviour has ruined their lives – you have to understand that.”

He ordered Hodder onto the Thames Valley Sex Offender Programme for 60 days, so that he would ‘get a greater understanding of how you have ruined the lives of your victims’.