A north Wales pensioner who was convicted of sex offences against children for the third time since the 1970s has been jailed for four years.
Bernard Leopold Aston, 75, of Bangor, was called an “unrepentant paedophile” and a risk to young girls when he was sentenced at Mold Crown Court.
He had denied five counts of indecent assault of girls under 13.
He was placed on the sex offenders register for life with an extended supervision order on his release.
Aston had denied the allegations and was cleared of trying to rape one of the girls by a jury at Caernarfon Crown Court after a six-day trial in October.
But the jury convicted him of five indecent assault charges.
Judge Philip Hughes, after hearing of Aston’s previous convictions, told him: “You are an unrepentant paedophile.
“You blame the girls who you say told lies about you. They plucked up the courage to report you to the authorities.
‘You groomed them’
“It is impossible to know at this stage what damage you may have done to the girls emotionally and psychologically, damage that may haunt them into their adult lives.
“You are in complete denial about the offences, as you were when you were previously convicted in the 1970s and 1980s when you indecently assaulted young girls.
“You blamed those victims too, quite unconnected to each other, and claimed they were telling lies about you.”
The judge said that it was clear that the defendant had deliberately and systematically cultivated the girls.
“You groomed them,” he said, adding that Aston’s interest in them had been lustful.
Age and frailty
The court heard Aston had been convicted by Bangor magistrates of two indecent assaults upon girls in 1973 and fined.
In 1983 at Guildford Magistrates’ Court in Surrey, he was convicted of further similar offences and was placed on probation for two years.
Duncan Bould, defending, said a prison sentence would be devastating for his client, considering his age and frailty.
Judge Hughes also ordered that Aston should never work with children in any way whatsoever.
