Paedophile who abused girl aged three is jailed
A PAEDOPHILE finally brought to justice for attacking a three-year-old in the 1980s told police he was still sexually attracted to young girls three decades later.
Stephen Thomas, 57, admitted to sexually assaulting his victim on a number of occasions in the 1980s in Bridgend.
His predatory behaviour came to light after his victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told police about the abuse she had suffered.
Despite the length of time since the offences, Thomas admitted to police in interview that he was still attracted to children, and made full and frank admissions about what he had done.
He told officers about sexual assaults upon his victim which she did not report as she was too young to remember.
Thomas’ sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Wednesday heard the defendant had pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault.
Prosecutor Roger Griffiths said the defendant’s first act of indecent assault on the victim took place when she was three years old, while the last act of abuse took place around 12 years later.
Mr Griffiths said the victim made a witness statement to police on July 4 this year and Thomas was arrested at a residential unit at Cefn Coed psychiatric hospital in Swansea.
In his police interview, the defendant told officers he touched the complainant in “a place where he shouldn’t” in order to gain sexual gratification.
He said he found her attractive and said he found children attractive in general.
In a victim personal statement read out to the court, the complainant said: “I hate Stephen Thomas for what he did to me.”
She added: “What he did was wrong and disgusting. How anyone can do what he did is beyond me.
“I class myself as a strong person and have moved on, but I feel Stephen Thomas is a risk to children and always will be.”
Defence barrister Hilary Roberts asked the court to give his client maximum credit for his guilty plea.
He added: “He now understands the harm and the upset he has caused, he’s upset at that himself, and he hopes an apology can be passed back.
“He accepts he still has an attraction to young girls but he says he would not act on it because he doesn’t want to cause harm to anyone else.
“He’s an open book, and of course that raises concerns he has these feelings, but it should be tempered by the fact he’s admitting it and the fact it shouldn’t happen, which he has repeatedly said.”
Sentencing, Recorder Peter Griffiths QC said he found the defendant to be “dangerous” and that he posed a serious risk of harm.
He said: “I’m not going to lecture you – you know what you did and you have expressed yourself as sorry and wish it did not happen. I have a difficult job of dealing with you for these offences, which are very old indeed.
“I have concluded that there is, in my judgment, a significant risk of harm in the future and I am very concerned about that.”
Thomas, of Oystermouth Road, Swansea, was sentenced to an extended term of five years’ imprisonment.
He was also made subject to a restraining order in respect of the victim, a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.