Man exposed himself to three girls within hours
APERVERT who exposed himself to three young girls within hours of each other has been jailed for 15 months.
Richard Graham, of Ramsbottom, exposed himself to a 14-year-old girl in Padiham and she ran into a nearby shop before the police were called.
It followed earlier incidents in Tottington and Salford. A judge said each of the children, the youngest aged 12, had been ‘traumatised in their own way’.
Graham had previously been jailed for eight months last December after being found guilty of indecent exposure to a 12-year-old girl near Victoria Park in Haslingden.
Prosecutors told how at about 3pm, Graham exposed himself to a 12-year-old girl in Tottington. He was driving a black Audi before getting out and pushing her into an alley.
She was able to escape by getting on a bus.
“I tried to scream but my voice would not come out,” she said in a statement read by prosecutors at the Minshull Street Crown Court hearing.
The child said she ‘didn’t sleep for weeks’ after the incident.
Hours later, at about 5pm, Graham was in Salford and exposed himself to a 13-year-old girl.
Her father searched the area and was able to note the details of Graham’s car, and passed it onto police.
Then just before 8pm, Graham was in Padiham, where he exposed himself to a 14-year-old girl.
She ran into a nearby shop and the police were called.
Officers tracked Graham through his car, to his house on Bolton Road North.
All three victims picked out Graham in a video identity procedure.
A psychological report submitted to the court described Graham as an ‘exhibitionist’ and claimed his offending was ‘adrenaline-fuelled’. A pre-sentence report said the offending was sexually motivated.
“He fully accepts that he has to do work around this offending, and he wants to do that work,” Rachel Cooper, defending, told the court.
“In his own words, he doesn’t want to do this again.”
Ms Cooper said the effect of the coronavirus on prisons has meant he has been unable to begin this work in custody.
Sentencing, Judge John Edwards said Graham’s behaviour has caused ‘significant and enduring trauma to their victims, and huge distress to parents and families’.
The judge continued: “Certainly up to now you have taken scant responsibility for your actions, denying any sexual motivation and asserting this was all about your needing an adrenaline rush.
“In my judgement this was not impulsive offending, this was planned, premeditated and highly predatory and showed a pattern of worrying behaviour over a prolonged period of time, when you targeted teenage girls.
“Each have been traumatised in their own way.”
Graham will have to sign the sex offender’s register for 10 years.