Ex-Central TV presenter is jailed for abusing boy
AFORMER ITV Central News presenter has been jailed after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a young boy.
On one occasion John Caine attacked the victim while he was being held down by an accomplice.
Caine, who used to work with ATV (Associated Television) and Central TV, was found guilty at Caernarfon Crown Court of indecently assaulting a teenage boy from the Flintshire area back in the late 1970s.
The now 69-year-old, already a convicted paedophile for offences across the 70s, 80s and 90s, appeared via video link from HMP Berwyn in Wrexham. The court heard he had become a trusted friend of the boy’s family and with his flashy sports car and BBC job had “impressed” his victim who was under 16.
The youngster was interested in radio broadcasting and Caine organised a “behind the scenes” visits to BBC Radio Merseyside where he worked at the time. But at those visits Caine preyed on his victim, groping him over his clothes on more than one occasion while driving him home.
The court heard Caine, on one occasion, performed a sex act on the boy while another man, who was not identified, held him down. Judge Timothy Petts said none of the incidents happened on BBC property.
Prosecutor James Wilson shared a statement taken from Caine’s victim, who has lifelong anonymity, which said the sexual assaults had “defined his whole life”.
He had been forced to live with a “particular intense feeling of guilt” that “invaded every possible aspect” of his life.
The statement said: “These incidents have effectively split my life into two parts – the one that existed before they (the attacks) took place and the one that I’ve endured ever
since. I feel that I have never returned to the person that I was or became the person I would or could have been had these things not happened.”
Simon Mintz, defending, said there is rarely much to say in cases such as these. He said that despite being “blessed with relatively good health”, his client, previously of Gower Street in Liverpool, is approaching his 70s, meaning that prison will be even harder to bear.
He said since the “destruction” of his broadcasting career, Caine went on to rebuild his life after being locked up by a judge at Manchester Crown Court. He ran a B&B in the Welsh countryside and also found some media work on a freelance basis.
Judge Timothy Petts handed Caine an eight-year jail term and a sexual harm prevention order for the next two decades. He must also sign onto the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.
After sentencing, Detective Inspector Iolo Edwards from North Wales Police’s Amethyst team said: “This investigation demonstrates that we will not let time be a barrier to discovering the truth or obtaining justice.”