Paedophile who abused girls spared jail due to a bad back

A paedophile who abused three young girls more than 40 years ago has been spared jail after telling a judge he had a bad back.

John Chappell, who has previous convictions for child abuse, admitted indecently assaulted the girls in the mid-seventies.

But the 60-year-old was given a suspended sentence after the judge accepted that his back problems would cause him “considerable discomfort” in prison.

Chappell, who was 16 or 17 at the time, indecently touched the girls – two of whom were under 14, and asked them to perform sex acts on him. But despite being convicted of similar offences just a year later, he had escaped justice for the crimes until now.

Sentencing him at Plymouth Crown Court, Judge Ian Lawrie, said the sentencing ought to be about punishment rather than revenge.

Chappell, from Bristol, pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two girls aged under 14 in 1974.