STEPHEN HARKER SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN MIDDLESBROUGH FOR CHILD SEX OFFENCES
In October 2012, Stephen Harker, a man from Middlesbrough, was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of child sexual offences.Harker, 47, had previously faced allegations of abuse dating back to 2006, but the case was dropped because his initial victim was too afraid to testify in court at that time.
The case was reopened last year after new allegations emerged from a second young girl, leading to five charges against him.
Harker, who is also a convicted rapist, was found guilty at Teesside Crown Court following a trial.
He was accused of abusing a girl six years prior and sexually assaulting another girl last year.
Despite his conviction, Harker maintains his innocence, with his barrister arguing that he has led a 'blameless life' since his 1999 conviction.
Harker was previously jailed for six years after being convicted of assaulting and raping a woman who he forced into her home.
During the trial, Judge Tony Briggs told Harker, a painter and decorator living on Sawtry Road in Middlesbrough, that he was guilty based on 'plain' evidence.
The court heard that Harker threatened both victims, warning them not to disclose their experiences.
As part of his sentence, Harker was ordered to register as a sex offender indefinitely and was banned for life from working with children.
He was also placed under a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, which prohibits him from having unsupervised contact with anyone under 18.
One of his victims, the eldest, released a statement expressing her fear and helplessness, saying she felt she had no choice but to keep her ordeal secret.
In a separate report from October 2012, it was confirmed that Stephen Harker had been jailed again for offences against children.
He faced five charges of sexual assault of a child under 13, which he initially denied but later was convicted of after a four-day jury trial.
Harker had previously admitted to four charges but withdrew his pleas before the trial concluded.
The jury found him guilty on all five charges.
During the trial, jurors heard how Harker touched the first girl on three occasions several years ago.
She confided in her mother, leading to police interviews where Harker denied any assault.
She described feeling too scared and weak to report at the time, and told police that Harker had warned her not to tell anyone, accusing her of being unlikely to be believed.
Another victim, a second girl, was sexually assaulted last year.
She was distressed by Harker’s actions and told him to stop, but he instructed her to be quiet and not to tell anyone.
Eventually, she could no longer keep what happened to herself.
Harker, who previously resided on Sawtry Road in Park End, had been bailed during the trial but was subsequently remanded in custody after allegedly breaching his bail conditions.
He remains in custody until sentencing scheduled for October 19.
It was also noted that Harker had served a six-year sentence in April 1991 for a brutal rape.
In that case, he had broken into a woman's home in Middlesbrough, where he assaulted and raped her, ignoring her pleas to leave.
Despite denying the charges at first, he was convicted after a trial.
The victim recounted how Harker had ignored her requests to stop, strangled her at one point, and struck her with a piece of wood.
