Churchgoer Jailed for Abusing Girl Three Decades Ago

By Russell Butt
Get Surrey
July 4, 2012

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2116369_churchgoer_jailed_for_abusing_girl_in_1980s

A CHURCH created a contract of behaviour allowing one of its stalwarts who had confessed to interfering with a young girl to remain in the congregation, a court has heard.

Kenneth Guichard, a regular of the Jubilee Church in Chertsey, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison for a sustained campaign of sexual abuse against his victim during the 1980s.

On Tuesday (July 3), Guildford Crown Court heard that in 2009 he confessed to his sons and his church that he had "interfered" with the girl, but not actually saying what he had done.

The church subsequently created a 'contract' of behaviour with him, by which he had to adhere in order to remain a member of the congregation. Guichard, of Rowan Avenue, Egham, admitted the string of offences.

The court was told the girl eventually went to the police in 2008.

Having admitted the allegations during interviews with officers, Guichard subsequently denied them but U-turned and pleaded guilty on day one of his trial.

The 68-year-old admitted 10 charges - one of rape, five of gross indecency with a child and four of indecent assault, all relating to the same victim.

The court was told the offences were committed in the early 1980s.

Toyin Salako, prosecuting, said: "When he was interviewed, he accepted that he did these acts and he told police during these interviews he remembers her saying 'no' and that she did not want to do it, but him continuing regardless.

"He told police he had been living with what he had done to her for 27 years and it hurt.

"What he did was his way of teaching her the facts of life. He told her this is what men and women do and he was preparing her for adult life."

Ms Salako told the court the abuse stopped whe the girl threatened to tell her mother.

Judge Peter Moss issued a sexual offences prevention order against Guichard preventing him, on release from prison, from entering areas children frequent, or from being around children unless their parents or guardians knew of the offences.

Graham James, defending, told the court his client was in ill health, suffering from spinal sclerosis, and that his long period of good behaviour in the community, including working with the Colts team of the local cricket club, should be considered in mitigation.

He added: "Any sentence he now serves for an offence he committed in his 30s will now feel twice as long."

Sentencing, Judge Moss said: "You are otherwise a man of 68 of good character and you have done good in the community.

"But what you did to her is, in human terms, unforgivable. You debauched her, you corrupted her and stole her childhood."

Guichard will serve seven years for rape, one-and-a-half years for gross indecency with a child and two years for the indecent assault charges.

He will spend at least two-thirds of the total sentence behind bars before being released on licence.