Locations
Medeswell Close, Brundall, Norwich, Norfolk, NR13
Description
A judge has described how the sexual assault of a young girl at a house where she had been staying is something no parent should have to endure.
Norwich Crown Court heard the victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had been staying at a house where Jeremy Simeons, 50, had been present when she was sexually assaulted.
Lori Tucker, prosecuting, said the victim was to later tell her parents that Simeons had “hurt her”.
Police were contacted and Simeons was arrested at work on October 12 last year.
When interviewed Simeons initally denied the allegations and told officers he had given her a cuddle and had taken her to the toilet.
The court heard that Simeons had been “unwilling or unable to recollect precisely what happened”.
Simeons, of Medeswell Close, Brundall, appeared at court on Wednesday (May 20) having previously admitted sexually assaulting a female victim, under the age of 13, on October 11 last year.
Before he was sentenced, the court heard extracts of a statement from the victim’s mother who revealed she was “devastated” to find out what her daughter told her.
Sentencing Simeons to two years in prison, Judge Anthony Bate said: “This is something no parent should have to endure.”
Juge Bate said Simeons had been a man of “previous exemplary character” but was now a broken man.
He also insisted the defendant’s claims to not recall what happened were likely from a “sense of shame to what you did to that young girl that night”.
Simeons was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) for 10 years and also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Andrew Oliver, mitigating, accepted the victim was vulnerable due to her age and said there had been an “abuse of trust”.
Mr Oliver said his guilty plea expressed remorse for something which had ruined his own career and left it in tatters.
Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Constable Richard Wallis said: “These offences can often leave a mark on their victim for the rest of their lives and it’s only because the girl was brave enough to speak up and tell her parents what had happened that the perpetrator was brought to justice. We hope the court case will help to bring some closure for the victim and her family.”