October 2014 Man jailed for 13 years for sex assaults on young girls A 30-YEAR-OLD man who sexually abused two young girls has been jailed for 13-and-a-half-years. Craig Preston was convicted of two counts of rape of a child between 2011 and December last year. An Oxford Crown Court jury also found him guilty of six indecent assaults and an attempted rape on another girl when Preston was a teenager between 1998 and 2003. Preston, of Bulan Road in Oxford, was yesterday sentenced at the court following the 11-day trial in August. Prosecutor George Heimler said the older victim had blamed herself for the abuse. He said: “She never trusted men. She thought because of the abuse it was her fault. “She was surprised she was believed by people and taken seriously.” Preston was handed ten years in prison for each count of rape and one to two years in prison for each of the indecent assaults, each of which will run concurrently. The judge sentenced him to a further 3 and half years for attempted rape. Nadia Chbat, defending Preston, said some of the crimes were committed when her client was a young teenager himself. She asked the judge not to give Preston an extended sentence, adding: “He’s still 30 years of age and I ask your honour to consider a sentence that will give him some light at the end of the tunnel.” Judge Zoe Smith, sentencing, said Preston had used Internet video calling service Skype to tell the girl she would get into trouble if she had talked. Preston was also made to sign the sex offenders’ register and a sexual offences prevention order was made to keep him away from young girls.