Description
A "predator" who followed a teenage girl along a quiet country road has been described as a "dangerous man" by the victim's family.
Convicted sex offender Barrie Hill started following the girl in his camper van when he spotted her walking alone after midnight. He subjected the girl to a shocking and frightening ordeal when she realised to her horror that he was repeatedly driving up and down. She claimed that he stopped his van, got out and shone a torch into her face.
Speaking after Hill was jailed at Hull Crown Court, the girl's stepfather – who came to her rescue and confronted Hill – said: "We are all pleased that he was jailed. He's a dangerous man off the streets."
Hill, 57, of Swanland, denied breaching a sexual harm prevention order by following, harassing and intimidating a female, but he was convicted by a jury after a trial. He was branded a "true predator" by the prosecution.
The court heard how the girl had "sneaked out" of her Holderness home after an argument with family members. The first thing that they knew about it was when she telephoned them in sheer terror.
She saw a van driving up the road and it stopped in front of her and pulled into a lay-by. The converted camper van, driven by Hill, went up and down the road five times, the court was told.
The girl claimed that Hill got out of the van and followed her after she tried to escape into a field. He went into the field after her and he shone a torch in her face as tried to retreat further away.
Hill denied that he was following the girl or that he shone a torch in her face. During cross-examination, the defence asked the girl: "The driver of the van says that he did not get out of the van and shine a torch in your face. Is he telling the truth about that?" She replied: "No."
The girl's stepfather told the jury that she called at about midnight. He answered the phone and it immediately became obvious that she was in distress.
She told him: "Help me, help me. I am being followed." The man told the court: "I leapt out of bed." He asked her: "Where are you? Where are you?"
She was a mile away. "I started running downstairs," he said. "I ran out of the door and jumped in the car."
The stepfather said that he told the girl: "I am on my way. I won't be long. Stay there." He added: "I saw some headlights in the distance facing me." The girl, who was still on the phone, told him: "That's the van."
'I know what you're doing'
The stepfather told the jury: "I was very angry. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know how many people were in the van. I pulled directly across the road, so I was right next to his driver's door."
He confronted the man and said: "I know what you are doing." The man did not respond. "He looked shocked and surprised that he had been approached by me and quite shocked, I would think."
The stepfather followed the van, which had driven away, in order to get its registration number. The stepfather shouted at Hill: "I know what you are doing. I know what you are up to."
The stepfather said that Hill told him: "I'm lost. My sat-nav's not working." The next morning, the stepfather spoke to the police. Hill was later arrested.
Convicted sex offender
The court heard that Hill had previous convictions for indecent assault, breaching a sexual harm prevention order and failing to comply with his notification requirements as a convicted sex offender. The sexual harm prevention order, given at Caernarfon Crown Court in 2017, followed a series of incidents in North Wales, in which he left women upset and shaken by making crude and inappropriate sexual comments.
He had been ordered not to approach any lone women and not to offer her a lift in his vehicle, or to give or offer any woman a massage. A judge had told him: "You are more than a pest. You are potentially a predatory individual unable to stop yourself behaving inappropriately towards young females."
Hill was later jailed for 26 weeks for breaching the order. At another hearing before Caernarfon Crown Court in October 2018, he was locked up for one year for further breaches.
Following the guilty verdict at Hull Crown Court, Cathy Kioko-Gilligan, mitigating, said that Hill was the carer for his mother, who was suffering from a serious illness. He was registered disabled and would find prison difficult.
He had been on bail during the trial. No mitigation was offered for the offence because he had fought a trial. Hill was jailed for four years.
Following sentencing the girl's stepfather told Hull Live that, had Hill's motives been entirely innocent, he would have asked the girl if she was all right. Instead, he had said nothing to her during the terrifying incident.
The stepfather said he believed that the encounter could have ended up a lot worse than it did. And he questioned why, in view of Hill's history of sexual offending and breaching court orders, he had been on bail during the trial.