Locations
Millfield, Chard, Somerset, TA20
Description
A ‘DRUNKEN predator’ who molested two teenage girls in Dorchester has been convicted of six charges of sexual activity with children.
Frank Maurice Cooper was sentenced to a total of four years and nine months in prison after being found guilty of the offences following a trial at Dorchester Crown Court.
The offences related to September 9 last year when Cooper had been drinking and met the fourteen-year-old girls who were with a group of their friends at the Borough Gardens in Dorchester.
The 35-year-old then followed the group to a play area off Maiden Castle Road, where they had planned to camp for the night.
The jury in the trial heard the girls’ claims of how Cooper had then sexually touched them on several occasions while at the play area and the police were called as a result.
Cooper denied the allegations when questioned by police and told the jury he had been play fighting with one of the girls that day and may have accidentally touched the other but had not intentionally touched them in a sexual manner.
The jury was told how Cooper, of Millfield, Chard, Somerset, had received a caution for sexual activity with a child in 1999, which related to the defendant having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl that resulted in a child being born.
Cooper was also made the subject of a child abduction warning notice in just days before the offences he was on trial for in relation to two teenage girls who were not involved in the case.
David Jenkins, mitigating, said the offences had all occurred on one day and did not involve a pattern of behaviour against the victims over a sustained period.
He added:
“There were no verbal threats and there was no real physical threat, although they may have felt intimidated because of his age.”
Judge Roger Jarvis told the defendant:
“Your behaviour in September of last year was quite disgraceful.
“It started off with you being a drunken pest in the Borough Gardens.
“From being a drunken pest, your behaviour progressed to that of a drunken predator.”
The judge added: “You targeted these two victims and you persisted with your intentions.
“These children would have been confused, bewildered and frightened by the actions of you, the drunken adult.”
Cooper was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life and banned from working with children.
Cooper is 'persistent predator' - Kidscape
COOPER’S crimes have been called ‘abhorrent’ by the director of a children’s charity.
Claude Knights director of children’s charity Kidscape, said:
“This man appears to be a persistent predator who does not seem to have learnt from cautions for past crimes associated with sexual activity involving children.
“It is imperative that his custodial sentence should include a robust treatment programme, and that he should be monitored carefully when he is released from prison.
“All must be done to ensure that he does not repeat his offending behaviour.
“The safety of children is paramount, and they must be protected from such abhorrent sexual crimes.”