Locations
Freeview Road, Bath, Somerset, BA2
Description
A MAN who had sex with a 14-year-old babysitter against her will has been jailed for three years.
Christopher Gouldsbrough forced himself on the teenager after he and his partner came home drunk from a night out, a court heard.
Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the incident took place at the 25-year-old's Trowbridge home in August last year.
She said the girl was staying the night after she had looked after the woman's child.
After Gouldsbrough and his girlfriend went upstairs to bed she settled down to sleep on the sofa.
But about 15 minutes later he came back down, saying he was getting a drink of water, and came through to sit next to her.
"He started putting his hands up her shorts. She said 'stop'. He said 'Are you sure?' She said 'Yes'. He said 'Are you certain?' She said 'Yes'," Miss Hingston said.
"There may have been a misunderstanding. The prosecution case is that she did not, in fact, consent. He may have mistakenly thought she did."
The court was told that as he started to have sex with her she said 'This isn't right, just stop', and he replied 'I'm sorry, I can't'.
When he was questioned the defendant refused to answer questions about the allegations.
As a result of the incident the court was told that the teenager, who feared at first she may be pregnant, had resorted to self harming.
Gouldsbrough, formerly of Melksham but now living in Freeview Road, Bath, was charged with rape and sexual assault of the child.
He was due to stand trial but before a jury could be sworn in on Monday he pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual activity with a child.
Robin Shellard, defending, said that his client 'bitterly regretted' what happened and he took responsibility for actions that drunken night.
As a result of the incident he said he had been shunned by friends lost his partner, though he is now in a new relationship, and also lost his job as a bar manager in Bath,
He said: "The man who appears before you today is a chastened and changed man from the drunken idiot who had sex with this 14-year-old girl that night."
Jailing him Judge Tim Mousley QC said: "You were drunk. It began with drunken flirting.
"By the early hours of the morning your behaviour became much more sinister than that and so far as your intentions were concerned, what you had in mind was obvious to all except, perhaps, the girl.
"I have read or listened to what she says in her statement about the effects of this upon her and she has been affected in very serious ways.
"How she has been affected in the future as a matter of speculation but one knows the effect of this type of behaviour is long lasting.
"She was a virgin at the time and for some time afterwards she had to deal with the fear of being pregnant."
As well as jailing him he also imposed a sexual harm prevention order and restraining order keeping him away from the girl for 10 years.
An NSPCC spokesman for South West England said: "Gouldsbrough has rightly been punished for an appalling attack on a vulnerable young girl, who will now need help to recover from his predatory actions.
"Gouldsbrough took advantage of his victim, despite her repeated pleas for him to stop. Abuse can ruin childhoods without the right support, and continue to have an impact well into adulthood.