Locations
Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, B50
Description
A disgraced police officer who sexually abused a young girl while he volunteered at a children's home during the 1970s is spared jail after two failed suicide attempts left him in a wheelchair.
Tim Lively, 62, from Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, was shown 'mercy' from a judge at Warwick Crown Court on Monday after they heard he is now in a wheelchair as a result of driving his car into a tree.
The former sergeant and detective constable was convicted of two charges of indecent assault and one of gross indecency back in May 2019.
Lively committed the offences in the 1970s when he was a Warwickshire police cadet and volunteering at a children's home.
The police officer appeared at Warwick Crown Court in a wheelchair on Monday and was handed a 20-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
Sentencing him, Judge Anthony Potter said he was sparing him from prison following his two failed suicide bids.
He said: 'Following his conviction Mr Lively made first an attempt to take an overdose, and then a couple of days later made a bid to end his life by driving his car at speed into a tree.
'That has left him confined to a wheelchair and has profoundly affected his short-term memory, and he is also assessed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
'I sentence you for offences you committed over 40 years ago and were convicted of over two years ago.
'Your personal circumstances were very different.
'You came from a loving home, and she was in care at the home where you volunteered. She was particularly vulnerable, something which you quickly identified.
'You befriended her and gained her trust and then sought to exploit that.
'It began when you were 16 or 17 and in the police cadets. She did it because she was scared and saw you as a figure of authority.
'You were not willing to admit what you had done, which caused a great deal of unpleasant memories to be dredged up, and it has had a continuing impact on her.
'I am just persuaded, as an act of mercy, that I can suspend the sentence.'
Judge Potter also slapped him with an 8pm-7am curfew for three months, and ordered him to register as a sex offender for ten years.
The court heard Lively became a wealthy businessman after leaving Warwickshire Police in 1986.
Following a 15-week he was found guilty of two charges of indecently assaulting a girl in the late 1970s and one of gross indecency with the same girl.
He was cleared of nine further charges relating to four boys. A further 14 charges were allowed to lie on file after Lively was deemed unfit for trial.
Prosecutor Rosina Cottage QC told the court Lively abused the girl, who was between 10 and 12, while he volunteered at a children's home.
Stephen Vullo QC, defending, said: 'He is in a wheelchair, and will be for life, and has a brain injury which he will have for life.
'He has to a large extent suffered very significant punishment already.'