January 2013 Hove man jailed for seven years for child sex offences A man from Hove has been jailed for seven years after being found guilty of historic sex offences against a five-year-old child. David Lennon, 55, of Lovegrove Court, Hove was sent to prison on January 4th after being convicted of the offences that date back to 1999 following a trial at Lewes Crown Court. The jury found Mr Lennon guilty of five counts of indecent assault which occurred between May 31st and September 1st, 1999. He was jailed for seven years for the most serious offences and four years to run concurrently for each of the other offences. Mr Lennon will also be placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely and he has been given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, preventing him from having unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 16. Detective Constable Holly Hallahan from Brighton and Hove Child Protection Team investigated the case. She said: “The defendant was supposed to be supervising whilst the victim had contact with her father – instead he sexually abused her, grossly abusing his position of trust and irreparably damaging a little girl. “This sentencing is a fantastic result for the victim and her family, and goes some way to easing the pain of the past. The victim is now 18 and this sentence means she can finally move on with her life. “I hope that this case encourages anyone else who has suffered child abuse – no matter how long ago it happened – to report it to police. Every allegation is fully investigated and, as this case shows, justice can be achieved many years later.” The victim’s mother said; “We would like to thank DC Hallahan for all her care and support throughout this investigation. We urge anyone who has suffered from heinous crimes of this type to come forward, whether the abuse is current or historic, so that the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice.”