Jersey Unreported Judgments

[2003]JRC027

ROYAL COURT

(Samedi Division)

 

7^th February 2003.

 

 

The Attorney General

-v-

John Michael Noel

 

 

2 counts of:

Indecent assault (Count 1, 2).

 

Age:     53.

 

Plea:    Guilty.

 

Details of Offence:

Offences spanned two year period between January 1988 and December 1989.  Both counts involved female victim aged between 7 and 8 years.  Defendant was victim's uncle by marriage.  Victim was regularly given into care of defendant, either at the beach (count 1) or in victim's home (count2).  The indecent assaults took form of digital penetration and oral sex on victim.  On occasion, defendant rubbed his penis against victim's vagina.  Defendant masturbated and ejaculated in front of victim.  Defendant threatened to hurt victim if she told anyone about abuse.  Abuse ended following occasion when victim ran from beach to police car parked nearby, although victim too frightened to disclose anything to police at that time.  Impact on victim: heavy.  Victim's two children removed and freed for adoption.

 

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty please to both counts at early stage, saving victim from ordeal of trial.  Prosecution unlikely to have succeeded without Defendant's guilty pleas.  Defendant entirely co-operative with Police.  GP's report showed that, at time of assaults, accused drinking heavily and frequently intoxicated.  Defendant stopped drinking 11 years ago.  Defendant has shown no remorse for crimes, but accepts heavy impact that behaviour has had on victim's life.

 

Previous Convictions:

18 previous convictions from 1968 to 1997, including 4 for indecent exposure between November 1977 and October 1979.  None others relevant.

 

Conclusions:

 

Count 1:	3 years' imprisonment.
Count 2:	3 years' imprisonment, concurrent.

 

Sentence and Observations of Court:

 

Conclusions granted.

 

A. J. Olsen, Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate D Gilbert for the Defendant.

 

 

JUDGMENT

 

 

THE BAILIFF:

1.        Indecent assaults upon children are offences that rightly arouse strong feelings of disgust in most people.  The corruption of innocence and the betrayal of the trust that children naturally show towards adults are factors that make such offences amongst the worst in the category of sexual offending.

2.        There is often, as there appears to be in this case, long lasting psychological damage to the victim whose own relationships can be affected and damaged by the memory of things that happened many years ago.

3.        We wish to commend the victim for her courage in bringing these events to the surface.  These offences involving Noel went on for some 2 years and involved digital penetration of the child's vagina and oral sex.  There was a gross breach of the trust placed in him as a member of the child's family.  It is accepted that the defendant threatened to hurt the child if she told anyone about the abuse. 

4.        On the other hand, in mitigation, the defendant has pleaded guilty to the indictment and was from the very beginning co-operative with the police and with the other agencies.  These are important mitigating factors because it has not been necessary for the victim to re-live her experiences in public.  Defence counsel submitted that Noel was not a predatory child abuser but an opportunistic offender and we accept that submission.

5.        Noel, you used this child, as she then was, as something with which to satisfy your own sexual urges and you have caused, as we hope you appreciate, great and lasting damage to her.  We consider that the Crown Advocate has taken all the mitigating factors fully into account in the conclusions and you are sentenced therefore on count 1, to 3 years' imprisonment; on count 2, to 3 years' imprisonment concurrent, making a total of 3 years' imprisonment.

Authorities

Whelan: Aspects of Sentencing in the Superior Courts of Jersey (2^nd Ed'n):  pp 292-6.

Jervis Dykes -v- Attorney General [1999] JLR 146.

A.G. -v- Moignard (6^th June, 2000) Jersey Unreported; [2000/96].

A.G. -v- Turner (21^st July, 2000) Jersey Unreported; [2000/143].

Bouhaire -v- A.G. (23^rd January 2001) Jersey Unreported [2001/23].

A.G. -v- Hanby (20^th March, 2002) Jersey Unreported [2002/66]