David Milton 84

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A CHILD abuser who persuaded primary age schoolgirls to dance naked for him has been jailed for the second time.

David Milton plied the victims with alcohol and told one that his sexual touching was ‘a special game’ when she was visiting his home at Newton Abbot.

The former lorry driver is already serving a 16 year sentence for abusing two other young girls in and 1970s and 1980s and has now been jailed again for abusing two more at around the same time.

One was so innocent that she only realised that what he had done to her was wrong when she went to sex education lessons at secondary school. She told police that she would have reported Milton earlier but had mistakenly been told that he had died in the 1990s.

She wrote a victim personal statement which said she had experienced a lifetime of suffering as a result of Milton’s actions.

She said: 'There are scar that never heal. They keep being scratched again and cause more anguish and pain.

'He thought he had a right to use us as playthings to satisfy his warped desires.'

Milton, aged 83, formerly of Howards Way, Newton Abbot, admitted indecently assaulting against one girl four times and another girl once. All the offences took place in the late 1970s.

He was jailed for six years with a two year extended licence by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court. He is already on the sex offenders’ register for life.

The judge told him: 'You grossly abused your position and grossly exploited the victims’ youth and innocence by assaulting them in the ways they have described. It took a great deal of courage for them to speak out.

'I have heard their personal statements and they give a vivid insight into the long term and very significant harm you have caused. They have had to live with it all their lives while you simply got on with life unaffected.

'That disparity is a real injustice and no sentence I pass can undo that injustice.'

The judge told him the sentence would have been even longer but for his old age, ill health and the long sentence he is already serving.

Miss Heather Hope, prosecuting, said the two new victims came forward in 2021. One told police she was abused while visiting Milton’s house in the 1970s.

He gave her and other girls who were there alcohol and encouraged them to be ‘giggly and hyper’ and to dance naked. He also touched her sexually in different ways when they were alone and took her into his bed when his wife was out working nights at a holiday camp.

He told her the abuse was ‘their little game’ to encourage her not to tell anyone. The other girl told police she only went to Milton’s home once but he took her into his bed where he put his hand inside her underwear and asked ‘do you like that?’.

Mr Herc Ashworth, defending, said Milton disputed the suggestion that he gave the girls alcohol. He said Milton had led a blameless life other than for a short period in the 1970s. He is now in poor health, which will make his prison sentence more difficult to endure.

In the previous case in 2017, Milton denied any sexual contact with two other girls but was found guilty by a jury. One of those victims gave evidence that she was so young and innocent when he abused her that she only realised the seriousness of his actions when she went to sex education lessons at school.

All the offences were committed when Milton was living in an estate near Newton Abbot in the 1970s and 1980s. The prosecution described him as having ‘an insatiable appetite for young children and no inhibitions at all’.

They said he brainwashed the victims and assaulted one of the girls while babysitting. He bullied the girls into keeping his abuse secret by telling them they would be taken into care if they told anyone what he was doing.

He received a 16 year sentence of which 15 years was a prison sentence with an additional year’s extended licence.