Latest Offenders Bakewell

Description

The father of Stephen Downing has been jailed for eight months for indecently assaulting a teenage girl with a mental age of eight. Ray Downing, 69, of Bakewell, Derbyshire, told Derby Crown Court he was teaching the teenager about sex.

Downing - whose son was wrongly jailed for 27 years for murder - befriended the 17-year-old girl in September 2001.

The court was told that the pensioner was naked in her bedroom and Downing admitted inappropriate physical contact took place.

Other charges

Sentencing, Judge Peter Stretton said: "You imposed yourself on an inadequate family and you used your dominance to behave in the way that has been described to me.

"That anyone could have believed that your behaviour was sexual education is beyond belief."

Downing, who collapsed in the dock as he was sentenced, must serve an extended licence period of three years and four months and will be subject to the terms of the Sexual Offenders Act for 10 years.

Fifteen other charges of indecent assault against five other women will remain on file.

'Huge pressure'

His defence solicitor said the family had suffered stress over the 27 years his son was in jail for the murder of a woman in a Bakewell cemetery.

Stephen Downing's conviction was found unsafe in 2001.

Speaking after the case, Stephen Downing, 47, said his father did not deserve jail and vowed to support him.

He said: "I am saddened that the judge has decided to send my father to prison.

"He is not a paedophile or sexual predator and this sad business has come about because of his stupidity and the huge pressures he has been under in the last 30 years."