Swansea Crown Court (iStock.com / Tony Baggett)
Last Updated: 2 minutes ago
An 85-year-old man has been jailed for sexually abusing a primary school age girl in the Swansea area and then bullying her into silence. A judge said he had used the child to satisfy his “perverted sexual desires”.
At Swansea Crown Court, David Blount, from Glascote in Tamworth, Staffordshire, received a seven-year special custodial sentence as an offender of particular concern. He had denied wrongdoing, but a jury convicted him at trial of indecency with a child and indecent assault on a child.
The sentence
The seven-year term is split into two parts:
- six years in prison
- one further year on licence after his release
Blount will be eligible for parole once he has served two-thirds of the custodial part. He will be on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.
Two decades of silence
The abuse happened in the early 2000s, when the girl was still at primary school. Afterwards, Blount used bullying and intimidation to stop her telling anyone. It was around 20 years before she went to police, finally reporting what had happened in 2023.
When confronted with the allegation, Blount insisted he had done nothing wrong, and the case went to trial.
A previous conviction
This was not the first time Blount had preyed on young girls, prosecutor Ian Wright told the court. In December 2006, Stafford Crown Court sentenced him to 30 months in prison for three counts of indecent assault on a girl under 13. Those offences were committed in the 1970s against two girls of primary school age, and they also went unreported at the time.
The woman’s statement
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, read her statement to the court herself. Speaking directly to Blount in the dock, she told him she was not his victim and that the shame of what he had done belonged to him alone.
She said that growing up, “every day was a battle”. She had never felt comfortable in her own skin, and the abuse had brought 20 years of anxiety, flashbacks and depression.
Blount may have thought he had “broken” her as a child, she said, but she had gone on to build a successful career and had a loving partner and family. She also raises money for the NSPCC. The truth, she told him, was that she was a survivor.
Going to police in 2023 had been her way of taking control of her life. She said she could not allow him to “rip apart” the lives of any more children the way he had torn apart hers.
Her father’s words
The woman’s father also read a statement to the court. He called Blount a “bully and a weak coward” who had made his daughter’s childhood “hell”.
He said she had grown into a beautiful young woman who was kind, honest, compassionate and funny, adding: “The world is a better place for having her in it”.
Defence mitigation
Hilary Roberts, representing Blount, told the court the defendant was of a “mature age” and had significant health problems. Roberts said custody would be especially challenging for him as a result.
The judge’s remarks
Judge Paul Thomas KC told Blount he had exploited the girl to satisfy his “perverted sexual desires”. The judge said Blount had then lacked the courage to admit what he had done, and at trial had tried to cast himself as the victim. He described Blount as “a man without scruple, remorse or conscience”.
