July 2014

Paedophile is jailed for indecent assaults on a girl aged 7

A paedophile who “blighted” the life of a seven-year-old girl he indecently assaulted has been jailed for three years.

Martin Sturgess, 49, from St Neots, had previously been jailed for four years for sex offences against another girl.

Hull Crown Court heard how the victim had suffered in silence for 23 years and only gained the strength to go to the police last year after recovering from a nervous breakdown.

The woman and her partner were in the public gallery to see Sturgess locked up.

Sturgess, of Russell Court, was convicted of three offences of indecent assault after a four day trial.

Recorder Timothy Roberts told him: “This woman’s life has been blighted as a result of what you did to her.

“For that you will be receiving a prison sentence. She was only seven years old at the time.”

The court heard that Sturgess was a misfit who wandered the UK in his 20s, leaving St Neots in 1989 for Goole, East Yorkshire, where he indecently assaulted the seven-year-old.

He was arrested last October after the woman went to police.

In a victim impact statement the woman told how she had lost her happy childhood years and had spiralled into a nervous breakdown.

She said: “The effects have been much deeper than a sexual assault – I have been damaged as a person and I will never get those years back.”

Sturgess, who studied for a degree in psychology, returned to st Neots and in 1997 he was jailed for four years for attempted rape and three other sex offences on an 11-year-old girl.

Mark McKone, mitigating, said that since the 1997 conviction Sturgess’s life had been controlled by the authorities.

He said: “He has had difficulties in life ever since he was found guilty of sexual offences. He has not only been controlled by the authorities, he has become a recluse.”

After the hearing the victim said: “All I ever wanted was for it to be acknowledged that it had happened to me.

“I had not seen him for 23 years. I saw him at the court staring at me. It was weird rather than frightening. He looked like he was struggling with what he had done.”