HONESTY' HELPS MAN ESCAPE JAIL FOR INDECENT ASSAULT ON GIRL
A PERVERT who groped a young girl has escaped jail because the judge was so impressed by his honesty and his steps to tackle his problem.Married Stanley Pownall subjected a 10-year-old girl to a frightening ordeal as she practised gymnastics with a friend.But because he was so frank about his fantasies he escaped a stretch behind bars.The court heard how the 10-year-old was exercising with her friend when Pownall followed them onto a field with his dog.He admitted putting one arm around her neck and with the other he touched her on the lower stomach over her clothes.
Prosecuting barrister Mr John Hedgecoe said that at the time, the girl and her friend were in the field with leotards on.
One girl had shorts on over the leotards and the friend was wearing jeans.
He asked the girls to remove their shorts and jeans and said it would help them do the splits better.
They did so and then immediately put their shorts and jeans back on.
Pownall, aged 58, then indecently assaulted the girl and later accepted there must have been something sexual in what he had done.
The girl ran off and told her parents, the police were informed and he was later arrested.
But he escaped a prison sentence at Mold Crown Court after he agreed to be placed on probation for two years after admitting indecent assault.
He must also live in a bail hostel for the next 12 months and accept medical help.
Judge Elgan Edwards said normally, such offences attracted immediate custodial sentences.
However he had been impressed by the fact Pownall, of Buttermere Avenue, Orford, had been unusually and extremely frank with the police.
He had also pleaded guilty and already started to do something about his problem.
"I think it is my public duty in this case is best served by letting you get the kind of help you so clearly need," the judge explained.
Defending barrister Mr Keith Sutton that his client accepted he needed help and by pleading guilty had avoided putting the girls through the trauma of giving evidence.
He said it was a relatively short-lived incident by a married man of previous good character who feared custody.
