February 2017

Pensioner found guilty of child-sex offences

A Birchington man – honoured by the Queen for services to St John Ambulance and sport – has been convicted of sex crimes going back more than 50 years.

Disgraced Derek Eaglestone, of Court Mount had been awarded an MBE in the 1990s after serving as a superintendent for the charity.

But now a jury has decided that during his time with St John he sexually abused one of the organisation’s cadets.

The 80-year-old was remanded on bail and will be sentenced next month.

He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register.

The victim told Canterbury Crown Court that a gift of a St John Ambulance badge a few years ago had triggered memories of the attacks.

He said the incidents happened in the 1960s and 70s after he joined the charity as a cadet at Hither Green in south London and Eaglestone singled him out.

The man said the incidents had begun “as a tickling game” in the back of a St John’s ambulance but became increasingly more sinister.

The jury convicted Eaglestone of four charges of indecent assault but returned not guilty verdicts on three other sex offences.