May 2021

Man guilty of sex offences against vulnerable victim

A man has been found guilty of a string of sex offences involving a vulnerable victim, who was spared coming to court during the trial in a first for Norfolk courts. 

Michael Smith, 64, of High Street, Dereham, was found guilty of one count of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, causing and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and causing or inciting a person with a mental disorder impeding choice to engage in sexual activity.

The jury at Norwich Crown Court took less than three hours to convict Smith of all charges.

During the trial the vulnerable victim gave his evidence and was cross examined on a pre-recorded video, which was a first for Norfolk.

The measures deployed meant the victim did not have to directly attend court while the trial took place, but was able to give his evidence in advance.

It is usual for victims in sex cases to give their evidence-in-chief on tape in advance and then be cross-examined over a live link during the actual  trial. However in this case the victim also allowed to be cross-examined on pre-recorded tape.

Judge Andrew Shaw told the jury in his summing up that it was the first Norfolk trial where pre-recorded cross-examination had been deployed in this way.

Judge Shaw said this meant the vulnerable witness did not have to wait until the trial to be cross -examined about his evidence.

He said Smith was present when his barrister Ian James cross-examined the complainant and stressed the cross-examination was carried out in exactly the same way as if it had happened during the trial.

“The use of special measures does not give added support for the prosecution case. The evidence was given as if he was called into the witness box.”

Judge Shaw explained to the jury the measures were to help the complainant give the best evidence he could. 

Following the guilty verdicts Judge Andrew Shaw adjourned sentence for reports.

Smith is due to be sentenced on June 25.

May 2021

Pensioner jailed for child sex offences

A 77-year-old pensioner, said by a judge to have a dark side to his character, was jailed for four years after admitting a string of sex offences.

Arnold Fox, formerly of Newton St Faith’s, near Norwich, who arrived at court using a walker, admitted taking indecent photographs of a child, exposing himself and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Duncan O’Donnell, prosecuting at Norwich Crown Court, said when Fox was arrested, indecent images were found on his phone, which he had taken himself.

Jailing him for four years, Judge Anthony Bate said to the outside world Fox appeared as a kind and generous man but said there was a darker side.

He also placed him on the sex offender’s register for life and made him subject to a sexual harm prevention order.

Update: Now living in Great Yarmouth

April 2007

10 years for ‘appalling’ sex attack

A man who repeatedly raped a teenage girl after dragging her into a Lowestoft alleyway has been jailed for 10 years.

Kieran Alexander, 21, grabbed his 15-year-old victim from behind in Windsor Road and, after telling her he had a knife, subjected her to an “appalling” sexual attack, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Sentencing Alexander, Judge Neil McKittrick said he had effectively kidnapped the girl, who was a virgin, and used her to gratify his lust.

He said: “A 15-year-old girl was doing something as routine as walking home from a youth club she attended. How can it be that a girl like that, doing something as innocent as that, should end up being the victim of a series of distasteful, obscene crimes?

“Before she could get to her home, she was effectively kidnapped by you, attacked by you and subjected to appalling sexual conduct which was degrading, embarrassing, demeaning and unpleasant.

“I intend to play my part in reassuring people they can go about their normal day to day life without you in any way attacking them for a long, long time to come.”

He said that he had come to the conclusion that Alexander, who was living at the Phoenix House hostel in Kirkley Cliff Road, Lowestoft, posed a danger to the public after hearing that in March last year he had grabbed a woman from behind in Yarmouth and tried to pull her into an alleyway.

On that occasion he had put his arm across the woman’s neck and his hand over her eyes before she fought back and managed to escape. Alexander was subsequently convicted of common assault.

Judge McKittrick said although that woman had not been sexually assaulted by Alexander, he considered the facts of that incident “highly relevant”.

“There is little doubt in my mind that if she hadn’t fought back she would have had visited on her the sort of experience that this 15-year-old actually had. The facts are strikingly similar.”

The judge added that Alexander would have to sign on the Sex Offenders’ Register indefinitely. He also made him the subject of an order to restrict his contact with children under the age of 16 and disqualified him from working with children.

Alexander, who used to live in Gorleston, admitted five offences of rape and three further offences of causing the girl to engage in sexual activity without her consent, sexual assault and robbery. The attack took place on January 11.

Kate Stephenson, prosecuting, said that Alexander had told his victim to be a good girl and said he had a knife. He had then put his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming before dragging her into an alleyway.

There he had pulled off her clothes before repeatedly raping her. At one point a car had passed by and Alexander had thrown a coat over her and put his hand over her mouth before continuing with the attack.

Before leaving he had gone through the pockets of her coat and took her mobile phone. He told her not to move for a few minutes after he had left and warned her that he would be watching her.

The girl had run home and her mother answered the door to find her with her trousers round her ankles and holding the rest of her clothes.

When Alexander’s room at the hostel was searched the girl’s mobile phone was found hidden under a pile of clothing. Forensic tests found his DNA in semen in the girl’s hair.

Miss Stephenson said that since the attack, the girl had been scared to go out by herself and had been sleeping with her mother.