NEVILLE WAYNE BARRATT

HALE MAN JAILED FOR PRESSING VICTIMS TO WITHDRAW COMPLAINTS

A MAN who tried to persuade two women to withdraw complaints they had made against him has been sent to prison for 32 months.

Neville Wayne Barratt, aged 46, was sentenced to 14 months for acts intended to pervert the course of justice, and 18 months, consecutive, for offences which included false imprisonment, assault causing actual bodily harm, common assault and sexual assault.

The judge at Chester Crown Court also made a restraining order to bar Barratt having any future contact with the two women and ordered that he should be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Barratt, of Tarbolton Crescent, Hale, was living in the Knutsford area when he committed the offences against the women.

Det Con Craig Lindfield, from Cheshire Police Eastern Area CID, said: “After his arrest Barratt tried, by letters and phone calls, to put pressure on the women to withdraw some of the complaints they had made against him, although he obviously knew them to be true.

“Attempting to pervert the course of justice is something which we and the courts take very seriously and the sentence reflects that.” Det Con Angela Marinari, from the Cheshire Police Eastern Area Public Protection Unit, said: “In cases like this support is available to help witnesses resist pressure from offenders and eventually Neville Barratt was faced with evidence which left him no alternative but to plead guilty.” Barratt was sentenced at Chester on Tuesday, May 4.