July 2015

Victim’s despair as child abuser walks free

A VICTIM of historic sex abuse says he feels “cheated” after the man who destroyed his life avoided going to prison.

Anthony Webb, 74, was ruled to have abused his eight-year-old victim seven times in the late 60s.

But he was found unfit to plead and could not be sent to prison.

The victim, now 58, who cannot be named because of the nature of the charge for legal reasons, said: “I never, ever stop thinking about it. It keeps me awake. I feel like I have been cheated. If he had gone to prison for a couple of years I would have felt justified.

“All the time he is going to be walking the streets I am never going to feel safe even though I know he can’t touch me now. I am just never going to feel right about it.”

During a trial of the facts, a jury considered whether Webb, of St Leonard’s Close, Bulford, had committed 14 acts of indecent assault and gross indecency with a child. They found he had committed seven of the acts.

Recorder Nicholas Haggan QC last week issued a five-year sexual harm prevention order and a supervision order for 18 months.

The victim said: “It was never about compensation.

“It was solely about getting justice and for someone to pay for destroying my life.

“I could have had a totally different 50 years if that had not happened.”

Winchester Crown Court heard the offences happened between 1965 and 1969 when Webb was in his twenties and the victim was aged between eight and 12.

The victim says the abuse has had a significant impact on his life and that he has had a number of nervous breakdowns and suffers from anxiety as a result of his ordeal.

Speaking about the sentence He said he was “disgusted” by the result which he said would never give him closure.

“I don’t feel like he is being punished,” he said.

“The sexual harm prevention order is complete rubbish for that amount of crimes.

“He has been given the absolute minimum.”

And the victim says his statement about the impact the assaults had on his life was never read out during the court hearings. saying: “There was no mention of the impact on me during the trial.”

At the hearing Recorder Haggan said: “Given the seriousness of the allegations it is perfectly clear to me that an absolute discharge will not be appropriate and you are not a candidate for a hospital order.”

The court heard Webb had been previously convicted of sexual offences but these acts had been committed before those convictions.

As part of the sexual harm prevention order given by the court, Webb is subject to a number of conditions which state he must not have unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 16.