June 2005 Child abuser is jailed after admitting attacks Former lorry driver Anthony Purkis, who sexually abused a young babysitter, had been jailed for two years. Purkis admitted a series of indecent assaults committed on three different children during a nine year period. The white haired 56-year-old has also been banned from associating with children when he is released. Judge John McNaught, sitting at Swindon Crown Court, said that although none of the offences were the worst of their kind the fact that they were against three separate victims of both sexes made things worse. Lynne Matthews, prosecuting, said one of Purkis’ victims was aged about 14 years old when he started abusing her. The girl, a daughter of a friend of his wife’s, used to baby-sit for their children in the early 1990s when he was living in Calne. She used to stay the night after looking after the youngsters while the couple were out. But when the parents returned Purkis would try and carry out the abuse. The girl told police she used to baby-sit on a regular basis between 1992 and 1994 and on three separate occasions Purkis tried unsuccessfully to put his hand under her pyjama bottoms while she slept. On a fourth occasion he succeeded. She said after that episode she left the house as soon as he had gone upstairs to bed and walked three miles home in the early hours of the morning. A second girl also complained about being touched by Purkis in the summer of 2000 when she was aged ten years old. The girl said an incident took place at a local social club and had been witnessed by some of her young friends after she told them about what he had asked. A third child, a boy, also told police that he had been indecently assaulted by Purkis in the early 1990s when he was aged eight or nine years old. When he was questioned by police Purkis, of High Street, Marshfield, Chippenham, described the children’s allegations as “absolute rubbish”. But he pleaded guilty to thee counts of attempted indecent assault and one of indecent assault on the first girl, two indecent assaults on the second and three on the boy. Sue Evans, defending, said that her client was a man of previous good character who currently lived alone. She said the pre-sentence report compiled by the probation service showed that her client was suitable for a sex offenders’ programme in the community. The shame he felt at what he had done meant that they had something to work with to prevent any repeat of what had taken place. She said that the offences took place when Purkis was drinking heavily as a result of financial problems in his life. Jailing him the judge said: “If you look at the individual offences they are not the most serious that the crown court deals with. “What is serious is that it involves three different young people, a boy aged seven, girl about 13 and girl ten or 11. That is three children, different sexes and a time span from the early 90s and July 2000.” He also imposed a three year extended licence, a sexual offences prevention order placing restrictions on his contact with children and banned him from working with children. Purkis will also have to register as a sex offender for ten years.