Drunken pervert spared jail for sex attacks on two 11-year-old girls
BRAVE YOUNG VICTIMS RANG POLICE IN TEARS
A PERVERT has lost his job as a purchasing manager in Nottingham for sexually assaulting two 11-year-old girls.
Father-of-one Paul Mitchell sobbed as he was spared immediate custody for carrying out the attacks.
In statements, both girls, now young teens, told of the lasting effects of the 57-year-old’s behaviour.
And he made both of them wait until the morning of the trial to plead guilty.
Imposing a 23-week jail sentence, suspended for two years, Judge William Harbage KC said: “These were disgraceful and appalling offences which were committed when you were very drunk. You say you do not remember committing them but being drunk is no excuse at all for this kind of behaviour.
“You are a father yourself and this must have been, as I am sure you can appreciate, very frightening for these two young girls who were only just 11 years of age at the time you assaulted them. Clearly they were terrified and they showed remarkable resilience to extricate themselves from your clutches, lock themselves away and call the police
“This has undoubtedly caused them huge distress that they have been sexually assaulted in this way and I only hope they can recover from this in time.”
Dawn Pritchard, prosecuting at Derby Crown Court, said the offences took place in Ilkeston in 2021. The girls were staying at an address and the defendant arrived there drunk after a day drinking “pints of cider and real ale into double figures”.
She said that while one girl was in the kitchen he touched the breast of the other and then went to the second victim and touched her groin area, bottom, thighs and breast.
Miss Pritchard said: “After it happened both girls locked themselves in the bathroom. One called her mum but there was no answer and so texted the other girl’s mum who called the police and told them to do the same so they called 999. They were both upset and crying.”
Mitchell, of Sherwood Road, Sutton-in-ashfield, admitted two counts of sexual assault of a girl aged 13 or under. He has nothing similar on a record including disorderly behaviour, being drunk and disorderly and drink-driving – all almost two decades ago.
In her statement, the first victim said she “wakes up crying in the night through nightmares in which she sees the defendant’s face”. She said: “He ruined my life and put me in a place I did not want to be.”
The second girl was left feeling “upset and crying a lot”, saying: “Before this I was happy and that has turned to hate and disgust when I look in the mirror.”
In mitigation, Lauren Fisher said Mitchell’s employer had told him to resign or be sacked.
“Mr Mitchell is enormously aware of the severity of his offending and he has already been enormously punished for his behaviour.”
The judge ordered 34 rehabilitation sessions, 150 hours’ unpaid work, imposed a seven-year sexual harm prevention order and placed Mitchell on the sex offender register for seven years.