JOHN MILES OF WORCESTER SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS FOR CHILD SEX OFFENSES

In August 2008, a 61-year-old man named John Miles from Lockhill, Upper Sapey, near Bromyard, received a two-year imprisonment sentence for sexually abusing two young children. Miles was convicted last month by a jury of four counts of sexual assault, involving a girl aged between six and eight, and a nine-year-old boy during the 1990s.

Justice Daniel Pearce-Higgins QC addressed Miles in Worcester Crown Court, stating, "The damage caused to children by abuse can be considerable." During the proceedings, Miles, who was in tears in the courtroom, was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for ten years and to be subject to an indefinite sexual offenders’ prevention order.

The court was told by prosecutor Jonas Hankin that the victims did not know each other. The girl, now 18, had reported the abuse to police four years prior, but charges were only brought after the boy disclosed his own experiences. Miles, at the time residing in Elm Green Close, Worcester, committed repeated assaults over two months, groping the girl’s private parts and performing a sex act on the boy.

The two charges related to the boy were described as sample counts from a broader set of offences, the judge noted. Miles, who worked maintaining computers, had once whispered to the girl, “I should not be doing this.” The attack on the boy occurred after Miles watched him playing a computer game.

Both victims were told to keep their abuse a secret, but they were not threatened, according to defense lawyer Tim Sapwell. Miles, who previously had a good reputation, faced social consequences as his family disowned him. He also suffers from depression and a skin disease, which would make incarceration difficult.

Mr. Sapwell explained that Miles previously found comfort in his Christian faith, but he no longer could. Although Miles refused to accept the jury’s verdict, the defense noted that the offending was opportunistic and of a short duration.