Swansea Abuser Jailed After Decade on the Run

A 58-year-old Swansea man has been sentenced to twenty years in prison after pleading guilty to nine sexual offences against one victim, beginning when they were just nine years old. 📢

Stephen Hindley committed numerous sexual assaults against his victim between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s across Mayhill, Plasmarl, and Manselton areas. The abuse continued until the victim was 22 years old.

After the victim disclosed the abuse to a family member, Hindley failed to appear at a court hearing in May 2013, and evaded capture for over a decade by changing his name and hiding from authorities. He was finally apprehended in July 2024 when spotted by an off-duty police officer in Llanelli.

Hindley pleaded guilty to all but two of the charges related to child sexual abuse and offences against an adult. In addition to his prison sentence, he will remain on the sex offenders register for life and is subject to an indefinite restraining order against the victim.

Detective Chief Inspector Chris Evans said: “Stephen Hindley is a man who committed horrendous crimes against his victim, from a small child into adulthood. His sex offences spanned a period of over a decade. He then spent a similar amount of time trying to evade the law and the repercussions of his actions. In the end, officers caught up with him. If the terrible ordeal the victim had been through for most of their childhood wasn’t bad enough, the agonising wait to see their abuser come to justice would have multiplied this an unfathomable amount. We are very pleased that Stephen Hindley was ultimately returned to custody and is now embarking on a significant jail term. We hope that, now, his brave victim can finally start to come to terms with what has happened to them and feels safer that he is no longer on the run.”