Locations
Grattan Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD1
Description
A disgraced former Yorkshire cub scout leader is back in prison again after he admitted indecently assaulting a young boy in the 1990s - but for only 30 months.
Former Ilkley man Peter Francis, now 68, was given a life sentence in 2002 for a raft of serious sexual offences against boys and girls and while still serving that sentence he was given a further five-year jail term in 2014 for abusing another boy.
Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday (July 3) that Francis actually served a total of 18 years behind bars and it was his impending release by the Parole Board in 2020 which prompted another victim to report the “dark secret” he had been carrying for years.
Read more: Two people injured after pensioner crashes Skoda into man, house and car in Lindley
Francis was actually released by the Parole Board on July 1, 2020, but he was arrested the next day and the inquiry into the latest allegations was started.
The court heard that Francis, of Grattan Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty in May to four charges of indecent assault on the complainant, who was a young boy in the early 1990s, and cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Francis was initially interviewed about the allegations in July 2020, but his solicitor advocate Julian White said he had no recollection of the specific offending.
Mr White submitted that because his client had been out of prison for the last three years and the risk he posed was being properly monitored the judge could take an exceptional course and suspend his prison sentence.
But Judge Colin Burn said it was important not to lose sight in an extremely complex sentencing exercise of the fact that there was a victim in the case who had suffered significant psychological harm on a long-term basis.
He said Francis would have been jailed for 40 months following a trial, but his guilty pleas meant that sentence could be reduced to 30 months.
In his victim impact statement the complainant described the abuse he suffered decades ago as horrific and said it had changed him forever.
He said he had been carrying a “dark secret” and Francis’ actions had not allowed him to fulfilled his potential.