July 2011

Chef sent to jail for sexual abuse of girl

A CHEF who sexually abused a youngster when he was a teenager has been jailed for nine years.

Jason Smithers denied wrongdoing but was convicted of improperly touching the girl, over some four years, from when she was as young as five.

Smithers, 27, of Chaucer Road in Weston-super-Mare, was found guilty of attempted rape and 16 counts of indecent assault.

Judge Michael Road told him: “These assaults had a very severe effect on her. I’ve no doubt that they blighted her childhood.”

Smithers was ordered to register as a sex offender indefinitely.

Bristol Crown Court heard that Smithers had frequently abused the girl by improper touching as well as by making her perform sex acts on him and using sex aids on her.

On one occasion he played a pornographic video and tried to force himself on her.

When she told him to stop or she would cry out, he told her: “There’s nobody there to hear you.”

Oliver Willmott, defending, conceded the victim would have been significantly affected by the serious abuse.

But he told the court: “That one incident of attempted rape was not as serious as the matters leading to it, where the act was completed.”

Mr Willmott said his client stopped the abuse when he was aged 18 and had since led an “exemplary” life.

He told the court: “He is otherwise of good character. From his 15th birthday he carried out hard work as a kitchen porter, and subsequently in other roles.

“He left his job because of these proceedings, when he was arrested at work.

“He was simply fired for gross misconduct and he has ceased to work because of these proceedings.”

Mr Willmott said his client had a wife and young daughter, yet all the while his past misdemeanours had been poised to catch up with him.

He said: “All the time, that was waiting to come and upset the situation.

“The adult will have to pay for what he did as a child.

“He is a broken man. He is now an adult and he is going to have to receive a custodial sentence of some length.”

Smithers was told he would be due to serve half the sentence in custody.