Jailed: School Caretaker Who Sexually Assaulted Young Girls at Holiday Camps

By Robin De Peyer
London Evening Standard
November 15, 2013

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/jailed-school-caretaker-who-sexually-assaulted-young-girls-at-holiday-camps-8942885.html

A school caretaker who preyed on two girls aged six and seven at holiday camps was today jailed for 12 years.

John Lyon, 40, admitted sexual assault by penetration on a seven-year-old victim, as well as another sexual assault of a six-year-old.

Lyon, of Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire, targeted the seven-year-old during a summer camp in north London in July last year. Police were called after the traumatised victim told her mother how she was taken to a bathroom at the camp and assaulted.

Detectives investigating the case then identified a second victim, aged just six, who was assaulted in similar circumstances during the Easter holidays months earlier.

Lyon was arrested just days after the second assault. He was charged in January and pleaded guilty to the offences in September, after what police described as a "complicated and protracted enquiry".

At Wood Green Crown Court today he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the assault on the seven-year-old, with a three year sentence to run concurrently for the offence relating to the six-year-old victim. He was also placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Det Con Mark Tester, from the Met's sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse team, said: "Lyon betrayed his position of trust as a caretaker at the school in the most heinous way, his actions demonstrated a pre-meditation and it is my belief that he poses a very real risk to children.

"This has been a complicated and protracted enquiry and I wish to thank the victims and their families for their patience and assistance throughout."

Two further charges of common assault and sexual assault were left to lie on file.