WILLIAM WOOD FROM BIRKENHEAD SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS FOR SEXUAL ABUSE OF GIRL

WILLIAM WOOD FROM BIRKENHEAD SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS FOR SEXUAL ABUSE OF GIRL

In April 2008, a man from Wirral, William Graham Wood, was sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted of abusing an 11-year-old girl.

The offences, which took place seven years earlier, only became known in February of the previous year.

Wood, aged 50, denied the allegations but was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court.

Judge Brian Lewis stated during the sentencing that Wood had "seriously abused" the girl and had told her not to tell anyone because "it was their little secret." The judge also noted that Wood exhibited no remorse and that the girl’s distress was evident while she testified.

As part of his sentence, Wood was banned indefinitely from working with children, prohibited from being alone with children under 16, and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

Prosecutor Janet Reaney told the court that the incidents occurred when the girl was 11 and that Wood was residing on Clover Drive in Birkenhead.

She recounted that Wood had instructed the girl not to tell anyone, and she only confided in a friend shortly before Christmas 2006.

The following February, the girl disclosed the abuse to her mother.

Wood, of Franklin Road in Leasowe, denied the charges, with his barrister, David Watson, stating that Wood continues to maintain his innocence.