Paedophile, 74, raped girl from prayer meeting
APROLIFIC paedophile described as a “dangerous sexual predator” repeatedly raped a young girl he met at a church prayer meeting.
Charles Fanning, 74, preyed upon his vulnerable victim and groomed her by buying gifts in a bid to satisfy his own degraded sexual gratification.
Despite his victim’s age, Fanning sexually touched her on a number of occasions before raping her on a number of occasions at an address in Cardiff.
The defendant, who has a catalogue of previous convictions for sexually assaulting young girls and consistently breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) was told he would “likely die behind bars” after being sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment.
In her sentencing remarks, Recorder Caroline Rees QC said: “Church prayer groups are a place where a child should feel safe and supported to seek out care, attention and support but you are a dangerous sexual predator who was able to identify [the victim] as a vulnerable child to be exploited by you, to satisfy your sexual needs.”
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Courtyesterday heard Fanning, of HMP Parc, was found guilty of raping a child under 13 and sexually touching a child under 13, on August 14.
Prosecutor Clare Wilks told the court that Fanning began his grooming of his victim, who has lifelong anonymity, in the context of a church setting.
She also said the defendant would befriend families who had vulnerable children and would provide gifts to try to gain access to children.
In a victim personal statement read out to the court, Fanning’s victim said she looked back on what happened to her as “gross and weird”.
She added: “I didn’t know at the time this wasn’t normal and it wasn’t until I grew up a little that I realised it was wrong. It should never have happened.
“The older I got the more it began to affect me. I had trust issues with people and I found it hard to deal with social situations, I kept associating what he did to me with other things.
“I have not found it easy to sleep, I have flashbacks and thoughts of harming myself. I have not coped well with this and it has left me with anxiety.”
The court heard the victim began opening up to teachers and friends and eventually disclosed what Fanning had done to her, which led to the police becoming involved.
She added: “I’m glad I told the police what happened so Charles couldn’t hurt anyone else. It’s taken half of my life to get this sorted.
“I don’t know how long it will take me to recover from this or if I ever can.”
Ms Wilks said Fanning had two convictions for child abduction in 1999, two convictions for indecent assault in 2000, one conviction for sexual activity with a child in 2006, and five separate offences for breaching a SHPO by having unsupervised contact with children.
In mitigation, defence barrister Nigel Fryer said his client wished to tell the court he had been “set up to fail” on previous releases from prison and maintained he wished to “expose the exploitation of children”.
Mr Fryer added: “He understands it’s going to be a lengthy custodial sentence and it’s likely he will die in custody.”
Sentencing, Recorder Rees described the victim as a “brave young woman”.
The court found Fanning to be a dangerous offender and sentenced him to 18 years’ imprisonment with an extended six years on licence.
The defendant will serve at least two-thirds of his sentence before being able to apply for parole. He will also be subject to a SHPO and must sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.