Ex-council chief faces ‘inevitable’ prison sentence
AFORMER Somerset council leader and Royal Navy officer faces prison after being found guilty of multiple sexual assaults.
Ric Pallister, who led South Somerset District Council for seven years, was convicted of 18 charges by a jury at Taunton Crown Court.
He “took advantage of his position” as a man of power and influence to groom and assault his victims.
He was accused by four women of a range of offences, including inappropriately touching their breasts, bottoms and intimate areas and also forcibly kissing on the mouth.
The offences, all denied by the defendant, spanned a period of 21 years with the oldest dating back to the 1980s.
The jury cleared him of 15 charges but found him guilty of the majority of counts.
The judge told him he was facing a lengthy prison sentence.
Recorder Jo Martin QC said: “Clearly the next stage is to sentence the defendant. Now he is convicted of serious matters it will lead to an inevitable custodial sentence.”
The court heard the charges related to four complainants, three of whom had been under the age of 16 at the point at which many of the alleged offences occurred.
Pallister had been a “pillar of the community” in the village of East Chinnock, near Yeovil, and “used that to his advantage” to groom and manipulate his victims, said the prosecution.
He was described as a “big strong man” with a big personality who would regularly organise events in the community and invite influential people to dinner parties, including on one occasion a Royal Navy admiral.
He was so respected that the victims did not feel as though they could challenge his relentless sexual behaviour. He also got a thrill out of committing the offences while in close proximity to other people.
Prosecutor Mr Charles Row said: “It’s important to understand how much of a character he was in the village.
“This circumstance made it almost impossible for anyone to say anything – and he used this to his advantage.”
The defendant faced 33 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency with a child.
The former councillor claimed he had been “nothing more than physically affectionate” and denied inappropriate contact with the complainants while they had been underage.
He told the jury during the three-week trial that all contact with the alleged victims was “entirely consensual”.
He said he had no memory of a number of the incidents ever taking place, and that several more did not take place “as described”.
“I have been trying and trying to make any sense of it,” he said. “I did not go around willy-nilly hugging and kissing women.”
Part of the evidence focused on Pallister’s general behaviour around women and how he would invade their space.
He would often greet women by putting his hands on their cheeks and kissing them on the lips. Friends said it was a running joke that he would gravitate to the most attractive woman in the room. Even a birthday cake was decorated with women.
Describing himself as “a little over-enthusiastic”, Pallister said that he had never been approached by anyone with regard to his conduct around women.
He said: “I may not be as sensitive as I could be, but I am not insensitive enough to greet someone in a way that made them uncomfortable.
“It is now clear to me that my way of greeting women, involving kissing them on the lips and holding their face or head, was remarkably stupid.
“But at the time, not one person – not one husband, friend or anyone – ever said to me, ‘stop that’.
“I liked women – I have made no secret of that. I was attracted to women, I preferred the company of women to men. But this manner of greeting was never done in a sexual manner – there was no sexual intent.”
His wife Hilary told his trial about her impressions of her husband’s character, his general behaviour around women, and an overview of their married life together.
“It all sounds very black,” she said. “But it was a very good and happy marriage and I don’t regret a day of it.”
She said the birthday cake decoration was just a joke and she never suspected he had done anything wrong.
“That sort of thing never entered my head,” she said. “I never saw anything to give me any feelings that sort of thing was going on.”
She had no inkling of his behaviour until police turned up at their home to speak to him.
“I had no idea what they were there for. I walked in and then thought everybody was looking very serious. Then Ric said something about how someone had accused him of something or other.
“I didn’t really take it in or understand it. When they went Ric said what he had been accused of. I don’t think I could believe it.”
Pallister’s friends also gave evidence.
Cathy Bakewell said she had known the Pallisters through their church activities since 1984.
She said he would greet people he knew by kissing them briefly but it had never caused her any concerns and she had never seen Pallister act inappropriately.
Pallister was a Liberal Democrat councillor for the Parrett ward and a churchgoer.
He was elected in 1999 and served on the council for almost 20 years, before becoming leader of South Somerset District Council from 2011 to 2018.
He was an air traffic controller at the Royal Naval Air Station base at Yeovilton.
Pallister will be sentenced today. He was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register and remanded in custody.
A spokesperson for the NSPCC in the South West said: “Pallister preyed on his victims and betrayed the positions of authority which he held in the community in the worst possible way.
“He is now finally facing the consequences of actions and this case highlights that survivors of sexual abuse can receive justice, no matter how long ago the offences took place.”