August 2010

Abuser jailed after station confession

A MAN who walked into a police station to confess to abusing a teenage girl years earlier is starting a five-year sentence behind bars.

Geoff Goldthorpe broke down in tears after saying to officers at the station’s front desk: “I’ve got something to tell you.”

Goldthorpe, 49, told officers how he became infatuated with the schoolgirl six years earlier and had sexual contact with her.

He told police he wanted to come clean about his past, and told them he had attempted suicide, and said: “Everyone will hate me now.”

Only hours earlier, on May 11, Goldthorpe had been cautioned at the same Teesside police station about a domestic violence incident.

He then returned to the police station in Kirkleatham, and poured out his heart about the years of sexual abuse, Teesside Crown Court heard.

He later pleaded guilty in court to a charge of indecency, two indecent assaults and three counts of sexual activity with a child.

Peter Wishlade, mitigating, said Goldthorpe was “utterly and totally ashamed” about what he had done, and had “abject remorse”.

He urged Judge Peter Bowers to limit the inevitable prison sentence because his client had instigated the investigation by confessing.

“Essentially, he brought this prosecution upon himself,”

said Mr Wishlade. “There is no certainty that it would have been reported.

“He walked into the police station of his own volition, having been released only a couple of hours earlier, having been cautioned for common assault.

“He described to the officer what happened, but after receiving legal advice, he made no reply to further questions.”

Goldthorpe, of Marlborough Avenue, Marske, east Cleveland, was placed on the sex offenders’ register by Judge Bowers.

An order preventing him from having unsupervised contact with under-16s, or staying in a house with children was also made.

The judge told him: “I don’t need to lecture you or tell you how wrong what you did is.

“Your admissions and your frankness will help you to some extent when you undergo the sex offenders’ treatmentprogramme.

“They can work with someone who is prepared to accept they have done something wrong, while they have great difficulty working with someone who refuses to acknowledge what they have done.”

Detective Constable Ged Swash, of the Cleveland Police child abuse investigation unit, said: “I commend the courage of the victim in this case.

“The sentence reflects the seriousness of the offences committed by this man and the impact it had on his victim.”