August 2008

Man is jailed for sexually abusing boy 30 years ago

A MAN has been sent to prison for abusing a five-year-old boy in Ashbourne nearly 30 years after the offence.

Mark Waywell, 49, of Bedford Street, Derby, was jailed for 12 months at Derby Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting the boy some time in 1979 or 1980.

The victim went to the police in 2006 after struggling for years to come to terms with what had happened.

During the hearing, prosecutor Dawn Pritchard said: “What happened to the victim as a child has affected his relationships and work. It ground him down over time and made him feel worthless.”

Waywell had originally denied the charge but made his guilty plea after a jury had been sworn in for the beginning of his trial.

Judge John Wait said it was “a difficult case” because so much time had lapsed and attitudes had changed since the 1970s. He said: “The offence was committed so long ago, at that time the long-term consequences on children of such acts was not as well known.

“But this was an act of deliberate cruelty and sexual humiliation so severe that only a prison sentence could follow.

“It was only a single offence but it has affected your victim profoundly for all that time. He has had to live with it.”

Judge Wait also ordered that Waywell be listed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.