March 2006 Paedophile sent to jail – 20 years on A PAEDOPHILE has started a seven-year jail-term for a series of sexual assaults that happened more than 20 years ago. Brian William Johnston, 68, of Copes Shroves, Hazlemere, pleaded guilty to seven sex crimes, all of which happened more than two decades ago. He was sentenced at Aylesbury Crown Court on Wednesday. Johnston admitted one count of indecency with a child and six other counts of indecent assault with children. In a statement one of the victims said: “I have lived in shame and humiliation. The suffering did not stop when he stopped.” Johnston, a retired salesman, feared his depressed wife would face financial difficulties if he was sent to prison because his state pension would be suspended. However Judge Terence Maher said it was simply a consequence of his actions. He told Johnston that if he didn’t want to put his wife in that kind of position and put his victims through 20 years of emotional hell, he would not have behaved like this. “You are a pensioner who is about to go to prison. Your wife is suffering greatly. “That is your responsibility.” Sentencing Judge Maher said: “This went on over a number of years. It seems to have taken him a long time to realise that it was wrong. “These are historic offences. The span of time over which they occurred is about two or so years. “They have had to live with the stress and the shame and the human suffering they have all felt.” Christopher Donnellan, prosecuting, explained that each of Johnston’s victims recently came forward to police to press charges against him two decades on. Sarah Fawcett, defending, said: “He realised in the early 1980s that what he had done was wrong. He described it as suddenly coming to his senses’. “He cannot explain why he acted as he did. He has been carrying around a burden of guilt for 20 years.” The pensioner has been placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.