August 2010

Swansea crown court handsdown year’s prison sentence for Milford man’s sexual assaults

A Milford Haven man found guilty of sexually assaulting two young girls has been jailed for 12 months.

Michael Frederick Joseph McGuire, aged 63, was convicted, after a trial at Swansea crown court, of 13 offences of indecent assault on girls when they were as young as 11.

McGuire, a retired scaffolder, was cleared of four charges of indecency with a boy when he was aged between six and eight and of two charges of indecent assault on one of the girls.

All the offences took place during the early 1980s at McGuire’s then home in Haven Drive, Hakin.

McGuire, now of Greville Road, Milford Haven, had been charged at the beginning of his trial of raping one of the girls five times when she was younger than 13. But during the trial the charges were replaced with additional allegations of indecent assault.

One of the women had told the jury how McGuire abused her “quite brazenly” at his then home in Haven Drive.

She said he even wrote a Valentine poem and said it expressed how he felt about her. She said she thought McGuire, a retired scaffolder, had abused her when she was as young as ten.

“I have flashbacks and see big hands. It’s never really been out of my mind,” she said.

On Tuesday, Judge Huw Davies said McGuire still maintained he was innocent of the accusations and so he could not give him any credit for expressing his remorse.

The girls, he added, should have been able to trust McGuire and he had had a duty to make sure they did not come to any harm.

In addition to the jail sentence, McGuire was instructed to register with the police as a sex offender for the next ten years.