June 2002 Mixed feelings as attacker is jailed A RELATIVE of one of the victims of a man found guilty of five sex offences against children has spoken of her mixed feelings following the verdict. David Chick, 55, of Summerfield Court, Trealaw, had denied five counts of indecent assault, two charges of rape, gross indecency towards a child and a child cruelty charge. The jury of eight men and four women took just over four hours to find Chick guilty of the five offences of indecent assault but cleared him of all the other charges. Appearing at Merthyr Crown Court last Friday, Chick was jailed for three years in total. The court ruled that he must be listed on the sex offenders register for life, and can never work with children. Following the hearing, the relative of one of Chick’s three victims, who are all under 16 and cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the Echo she was “disgusted and pleased” with the verdicts. She added: “I do not think the sentence was long enough but it’s something. If he had walked away from the court, I would have been gutted. “It is going to take a long time to get over this. “I never want any of us to have to go through anything like this ever again.” Speaking outside the courtroom minutes after Chick was sentenced, his sister Linda Peel said: “There is nothing to say apart from it’s all lies.” Defence counsel Hilary Roberts asked Judge John Curran to take into account Chick’s age and recent heart problems, for which he might have to undergo a bypass operation. He also asked Judge Curran to bear in mind that Chick had been “drinking to excess” and “under considerable stress” at the time the offences happened. The judge said he did not want a presentence report compiled before he passed sentence as anything Chick would tell probation officers would not necessarily be true. And the judge told the court: “The background to these offences is disturbing and most unpleasant.” He blamed Chick for putting the children through the “indignity of court proceedings and being called liars under cross examination.”