Judge tells child abuser he faces jail
10:18am Saturday 2nd March 2013 in News
A SEX offender who abused a child “many” times over a 10-year-period is facing jail.
Nicholas West, aged 56, of Elmwood Grove, Farnworth, had denied nine counts of indecent assault and five counts of gross indecency with a child, but, on the second day of deliberations, the jury found him guilty of all charges.
It took them five hours and 13 minutes to reach a unanimous verdict. The crimes only came to light when an unrelated incident “touched a nerve” with the victim, who is now an adult, and she decided she could no longer keep secret the abuse she suffered.
The victim was said to have cut her hair as a toddler because she did not want to be a girl any more and prosecutor Henry Blackshaw said her actions were a way of showing she wanted the abuse to stop.
On one occasion, another child recalled seeing West entering the girl’s bedroom.
But when he asked what he saw, West told him he had seen a ghost.
The mother of the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she did not have any suspicions that her child was being abused and that her “stomach turned over” when her daughter, as an adult, told her what West had done.
After the victim told people of the offences, her partner confronted West at his home.
Bolton Crown Court heard the victim still saw West regularly until the abuse was reported.
West, who had no previous convictions, denied any wrongdoing and claimed the allegations were fabricated.
The jury of eight women and four men were previously directed to find West not guilty of four additional charges due to lack of evidence.
Remanding West in custody, judge Peter Davies warned him that he was facing a jail sentence and adjourned sentencing until April 12.
