Ex-social worker is jailed for sex attacks on boy
APAEDOPHILE former social worker faces dying behind bars after being jailed for 17 years.
James Peter Gavin, aged 82, described as a ‘twisted and manipulative predator’ committed the offences while the victim, a young boy, stayed at foster homes and the former Foxholes Children’s Home in Rochdale.
Gavin, of College Bank Way, Rochdale, was sentenced at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court after he was found guilty of four counts of indecent assault and one count of an attempted serious sexual assault on a child.
The court heard how during the 1970s Gavin – who had access to the boy through his role as a social worker – sexually abused him on a number occasions. Gavin would drive the victim to a location where he would sexually assault him. The boy didn’t tell his carers at the time out of fear he’d get in trouble or that no one would believe him. Gavin also threatened him.
He bravely reported it to police in 2015.
Following an investigation, Gavin was arrested and interviewed and he continued to deny the offences.
PC Karen Bancroft, from GMP’s Rochdale borough, said: “Gavin preyed on a vulnerable boy who should have been cared for and supported during an unsettling time in his life.
“Instead, for his own sick sexual gratification, he sexually abused him knowing the distress it would cause.
“Not once did he care about the emotional damage he was inflicting on an innocent child who has had to carry this pain with him his entire life. Gavin is a twisted, manipulative predator and thanks to the courage of the victim, his patience and his strength, he is now where he belongs.”