2004: MAN IS JAILED FOR INDECENT ASSAULT
William Perkins, a man from Alcester, received a two-year prison sentence after admitting to sexual offenses involving two teenage girls.The 38-year-old, residing at Ten Acres, pled guilty at Warwick Crown Court to indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl with whom he had sexual intercourse at her home and his residence during the mid-1990s.
Additionally, he admitted to a less serious indecent assault on a second girl, aged 15, during the same period, leading to a pre-sentence report being prepared.
At Coventry Crown Court, Perkins was ordered to serve two years in prison and to register as a sex offender for ten years once released.
Prosecutor Malcolm Morse explained that the 15-year-old had come into contact with Perkins through a mutual acquaintance, and Perkins maintained that touching her was consensual, based on genuine affection.
The girl, however, claimed that Perkins had shown inappropriate interest in her before she started high school.
The second victim reported that inappropriate conduct began when she was 13 and progressed to sexual intercourse when she was 14, with incidents occurring twice at Perkins's home in Alcester and twice at her Redditch residence.
When police investigations led to Perkins’s arrest, he denied any inappropriate behavior toward the girls or a third girl who also filed a complaint.
Defense solicitor Pamela Ratcliffe stated that Perkins accepted his actions were wrong but was genuinely remorseful.
She added that his pleas demonstrated he was not a predatory individual and that the incidents with each girl were limited in duration, with no subsequent offenses.
The judge, Richard Cole, remarked that despite the crimes occurring some years ago, they still deserved punishment.
He acknowledged Perkins's remorse and emphasized the need to protect young girls from older men who might behave inappropriately, noting that the guilty pleas spared the victims from having to testify in court.
