A ‘VILE’ man who sexually assaulted a five-year-old girl in woods near a Dorset caravan park has been jailed.

Robert Anthony John Wade, 65, was sentenced to 31 months in prison after admitting four sexual offences at Dorchester Crown Court.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 13 and two charges of sexual activity in the presence of a child. Wade was later sentenced to a further 12 weeks after admitting possessing indecent images of children and extreme pornographic images that were found on his computer after his home in Surrey was searched following his arrest.

Heather Shimmen, prosecuting, told the court that the sexual assaults occurred at the Norden Farm caravan park near Corfe Castle on the weekend of July 19 last year.

She said the defendant was walking in woods with the girl when he exposed himself.

Miss Shimmen said that Wade had also touched the young girl over her clothing.

She said that later that weekend the defendant returned to the same spot with the girl and repeated a sexual act after he had ‘pulled her towards him by her waist’ and again touched her over her clothing.

When interviewed about the matters by police Wade admitted committing a sexual act in the woods but said he did not realise the girl was in the vicinity.

He denied he was sexually attracted to the girl.

Miss Shimmen said the girl’s parents had expressed relief at Wade’s admissions and the fact that their daughter would not have to give evidence in court.

Rufus Taylor, mitigating, said forklift truck driver Wade, of Rankine Close, Badshot Lea, Farnham, Surrey, had not been in trouble with the courts for some 30 years and that had been for wholly different matters.

He said: “The only mitigation in this case is that he finally came to his senses and pleaded guilty.

“It’s the only good point I can put forward on his behalf, that he has at least now stopped the victim from having to come to court.”

Judge Roger Jarvis described the offences as ‘deplorable’ and said Wade had ‘vilely abused’ his victim.

As well as sentencing Wade to a total of 31 months in prison, the judge also placed him on the sex offenders’ register for life and made the defendant subject to a sexual offences prevention order until further notice.

  • AS HE sentenced Wade for the indecent images and extreme images charges, Judge Jarvis told the defendant: “These are very worrying offences indeed.

“In terms of the pictures, there aren’t as many that this court sometimes has to deal with, sometimes we have to contemplate hundreds of thousands, but no matter the number, what you need to remember is every time you look at such an image you are complicit with a sexual crime.

“The more people like you who get pleasure from these images the more children that get hurt as more pictures are taken to satisfy the demand. Their lives are plainly corrupted.

“As they go into childhood through to adulthood they will have to live with it.

“These are the sorts of things people like you need to keep in mind.”

The judge added: “These offences of extreme pornography, they are not victimless crimes because the women in these images are often trafficked and forced into their involvement.

“That’s another thing people like you need to keep in mind when you view these images.”