MATTHEW ROSS'S CRIMINAL ACTS LEAVE 12-YEAR-OLD IN CHESTER'S LIFE IN RUINS

In July 2004, the family of a 12-year-old girl from Chester revealed the devastating impact of an 18-year-old man’s admission of having illegal sexual relations with her.

The young girl’s family expressed their deep disgust at the relatively lenient sentence handed down to Matthew Ross, who resides on Melrose Avenue, Appleton. Ross pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 at Warrington Crown Court on Friday, July 2. Due to legal restrictions, the victim’s identity remains confidential.

Ross received a six-month detention in a young offenders’ institution and was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for seven years.

The girl’s father voiced his outrage, stating, “He has taken her youth away. He’s only going to do three months; he might as well have got a slap on the wrist. It’s nothing. It’s like a holiday; he should be going to prison.”

He expressed concern about potential future offenses, saying, “I think it’s all wrong. He will come out thinking, ‘that wasn’t hard, it was easy,’ and he will re-offend.”

The victim’s family is working to help her recover emotionally, though she remains traumatised and currently attends counselling sessions. Her father added, “She’s totally changed. Before she would sit on my knee and call me daddy, now she’s grown up. She’s not happy, she hardly smiles.”

He also shared his feelings of helplessness, stating, “She’s still a baby in my eyes. When I heard about it I wanted to take the law into my own hands. But then I thought, if I do anything, he will get off with it. So I decided to let the police handle it and seek justice.”

However, upon learning about Ross’s sentence, he expressed regret, saying he wished he had taken matters into his own hands.

The girl’s aunt described her niece's struggle to cope with the trauma, adding, “The idea of talking to the press is to tell the public what little protection you have got for your own kids.”