15 years for ‘vile’ child abuser
COWARDLY SEX OFFENDER LACKED ‘COURAGE OR DECENCY’ TO HEAR SENTENCING
A CHILD sex attacker carried out a campaign of abuse on an underage girl during which he fed her chocolate mousse laced with cannabis and bribed her to carry out his perverted desires.
Nottingham Crown Court heard how Christopher North also chaperoned the teen victim to hospital and gave her a cover story when she terminated a pregnancy he was responsible for.
It took years for the now 57-yearold’s victim to muster the courage to go to the police. The cowardly defendant refused to enter the court to hear his fate, preferring instead to sit in his cell.
Imposing a 15-year jail sentence, Judge William Harbage said: “I sentence Christopher North in his absence. He is here in the court building but he lacks the courage or the decency to come into the courtroom to hear about what’s said about his sentence. He sexually assaulted his victim repeatedly in a vile and horrid way.
“He bribed her with cash saying ‘you know what you need to do if you want to keep it’ and when she fell pregnant he chaperoned her to the termination and told her what to say as a cover story. He took her to a field and a quiet track where he had sex with her outside against a fence post.
“He put marijuana in chocolate mousse in order to relax her, and in her victim impact she says what she said in it does not even scratch the surface of the impact this has had on her life. She said the effects will stay with her until the day she dies.
“I am quite satisfied she suffered and continues to suffer with severe psychological harm as a result of what he did to her. And it is clear from his pre-sentence report that he is still in denial.”
Richard Thatcher, prosecuting, said the victim was under 16 when she was sexually assaulted.
He read out part of a victim impact statement in which she told how she moved away from Nottinghamshire, self-harmed and attempted to kill herself.
She said: “I felt completely and utterly helpless, went on to a high dose of antidepressants and turned to alcohol, binge drinking at weekends.
“I did not want to give this man the satisfaction of knowing he has ruined my life, but the sad reality is that he has in so many ways.”
North, of Bagshaw Street, Pleasley, Mansfield, pleaded guilty to the child sex offences.
In 2007 he was jailed for imprisoning a female and slashing her throat, telling her: “I am going to rape you until I kill you. No one gets out of here alive.”
In mitigation, Jeremy Janes said: “He is going to have plenty of time to reflect on his ways. He knows the light at the end of the tunnel is dim.”
The judge placed him on the sex offender register for life and imposed a lifetime sexual harm prevention order.
Detective Constable David Hikin, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “North is a calculating and predatory sex offender who has finally been exposed thanks to the determination and bravery of his victim.”