Peter Soares spared immediate jail after three sexual assaults on teenager

Peter Soares, 46, from Chippenham, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court to two-and-a-half years in prison, suspended for two years.

He was 42 when he attacked the teenager in May 2022. She was just 16 and had trusted him.

Soares cornered her in a bathroom and said, “just let me have one touch”. He then put his hands down her top and grabbed her bare breasts.

The abuse did not end there. On the same day, he sexually assaulted her twice more — touching her genital area through her clothing, then taking her hands and rubbing them against his penis over his trousers.

These were three separate assaults against the same teenage girl in a single day.

In her statement to the court, she described herself before the abuse as “young, vulnerable and still trying to find my place in the world”.

She said Soares had exploited her trust in a cruel and selfish way, leaving her frightened, ashamed and deeply traumatised. Describing the lasting harm, she said: “the pain has never left me.”

A jury convicted Soares of three counts of sexual assault. He was acquitted of two further counts and had no previous convictions.

Several employees at his Wiltshire cleaning company submitted positive character references.

Recorder Donald Tait said the offences clearly crossed the custody threshold and recognised the heartache and anguish Soares had caused.

The recorder also criticised him for failing to accept full responsibility, pointing out that he had chosen not to plead guilty to any of the offences.

Yet his prison sentence was suspended for two years. He was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £4,380 in costs.

The victim was just 16 — a teenager who dwescribed herself as, “young, vulnerable and still trying to find my place in the world”.

She had trusted Soares. His abuse shattered that trust, leaving her frightened, ashamed and deeply traumatised.