Schoolgirls ‘were an absolute menace to ageing gentlemen’

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 6

Schoolgirls ‘were an absolute menace to ageing gentlemen’

Dart, aged 12, and Pamela McLean, aged 14. Alison’s mother, Mrs Ei- ; leen Allery, said at her , home: “We were promised the girls’ names would be kept out of this. ' “I feel sick at what has' happened. How can my daughter be in the wrong? ! She is terribly upset and has refused to go to school. I’m out of my mind with worry. It’S so unfair.” Mrs Allery’s husband. Der- , rick, added: “This is a trageI dy. Our friends and neigh- ! hours are going to believe I the worst about her. “She is a very sensitive girl and this sort of thing ■ could blight her whole life. I i don’t suppose the judge bothered to think about that. : He must be heartless.” Kathleen’s mother, Mrs Daphne Dart said: “The I Judge has branded my child as a sex maniac without ■! bothering to make any effort I; to find out what she is ! really like.” r Mrs Dart added: “All he i had to go on was that was i said in court.

,n'young girls who were already corrupt. 1, “These girls were an abso5- lute menace to ageing! ;e ! gentlemen.-They go back tq ;o! their flats for money.” -* He added: “Indecent asn saults on small girls, howjt'ever dirty and corrupt, norle mally attract a prison senjf tence. but there are special a features in this case which 3. enable me to suspend sen)f tence.” >r He said that Rodney Cone gram, aged 53. a jobbing i- gardener, of Torquay, had admitted the offences, had )f I no previous convictions, and ie was fulj of remorse. i:j He was an “unsophistiid'eated, isolated, and rather ! lonely man getting on in lei years. ir! “He was a victim that iglgirls of this sort were look-! s-iing for,” the judge said. ie! The judge had been told y,'by Mr Graham Neville, prossrecuting, that the girls “were! r-1 already initiated into sexual activity.” d: The girls, who were not in i-1 court, were named as Alison jflAllery, aged 11, Kathleen

NZPA Londor Three schoolgirls aged 11 12, and 14 have been described by a sex-case judge as “an absolute menace tc ageing gentlemen.'' He refused to give ar order that they should noi be named, and gave the middle-aged man accused ol indecently assaulting them a one-year suspended sentence. He accused the girls ol "seducing” a lonely bacheloi after hearing that they were paid up to 50p (90c) for indulging in sex activity. Later the father of one oi the girls attacked the judgt as “heartless” and said “This sort of thing coulc blight her life.” Mr Justice Lawson madt his decision at the' Exetei Crown Court after being asked routinely by the prosecution to rule that the girls, all from Torquay should not be named undei the Children and Young Per sons Act. He retorted: “Why shoulc I? Here was a lonely bach elor seduced by a pack ol

i “He didn’t ask me about; her. She is an ordinary 12- ■ yegr-old girl. She doesn’t • stay out at night, and I find I it hard to believe that a girl -of her age could corrupt a middle-aged man. >! “She has been through ' enough already, and now its! '[going to be held against her ilat school. 1 “The judge should be ash- • anted of what he has done.” During the case Mr Jeremy Wright, for Congram, asked the judge to accept j! that some of the girls’ accuJsations were exaggerations ,!of the degree of indecency. ■ j He said the accused was a [! lonely man living by himself[ yin a small flat in Torquay. • ' He had no part in initiating the girls, although I 3 he committed indecent acts - with them. He said the girls. I were by then already ex-' t perienced. t After receiving his sus- ’ pended sentence. Congraro told the judge, “Thank you “very much.” He refused to 3 comment when he left the ■ court.