Peter Hayes 60

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A man who sexually assaulted a young girl he was asked to babysit has been jailed. Peter Hayes, 60, has been sentenced after admitting historic sex offences against the child.

After he attacked her, Hayes left 50p on her bedside table and said if she told anyone 'her family would separate from her'. The victim, who has anonymity for life, detailed the haunting impact the offences have had upon her life before Minshull Street Crown Court.

“Over the years I often worried about how great your life has been, and if you felt like you had a life sentence hanging over you like I did,” she began.

“I have been worried if you even thought about the crime against me and if you thought I would be strong enough to face you. Standing here, I have faced my demons all these years later for that little girl whose innocence and childhood you stole.

“The damage caused to me was never ending. You knew, and I knew, it was wrong. I know I am enough, and I am no longer haunted by the evil you left me with and that you now carry for the rest of your days.

“This was not a spur of the moment, this was premeditated. You knew what you were doing.”

She said her mother had never forgiven herself for what happened and her brothers who were also in the house at the time, had struggled to accept the offences.

“No sentence you will receive will ever make up for what I suffered at your hands. I doubt you will ever understand how what you did affected me.”

She said she had been left with anxiety, trauma and flashbacks. It was following a cancer diagnosis that she felt she was able to go forward with the prosecution.

“From this moment on I am looking forward and not backwards,” she said.

The court heard that on two separate occasions, Hayes, then in his 20s, had molested the girl whilst her parents had asked him to babysit.

“He then left 50p on her bedside table, and said if she told anyone her family would separate from her,” prosecutor Rob Hall said. “She felt she could not tell anybody for quite some time.”

The woman reported matters to the police years later. Hayes denied the offences but eventually pleaded guilty to indecency with a child and indecent assault on a child.

“He is bereft of the society of his family,” his barrister, Neil Ronan said. “This man is alone and has a plethora of medical issues. He has aged badly.

“This defendant has thought regularly of the behaviour and it has eaten him up inside. He had rang the police a number of times and hung up and the only reason he did that was cowardice and shame.

“He is a lonely, unhappy and broken man,” Mr Ronan added.

Sentencing, Judge Matthew Corbett-Jones said the offence and the threats made to the girl were ‘particularly unpleasant’.

“This happened where she should have felt safe and protected.”

Hayes, of Upper Chorlton Road, Stretford, was jailed for five years and four months. He was also made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for life and must sign the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely. Greater Manchester Police have not provided a custody image for Hayes.