October 2005 Child abuse pilot jailed A FORMER RAF pilot from Lichfield who sexually abused two girls from 1960, has been jailed for three-and-a-half years. Judge John Shand at Stafford Crown Court told Donald Lynch, 74, who suffers from prostate and skin cancer: “If you were a younger and fitter man I would have considered a sentence in the region of eight years. “But I have to sentence a man very much older and in ill health and that is a factor I must taken into account. But there was persistent abuse.” Lynch of Tamworth Road, was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for the rest of his life. He was convicted in May on 14 charges of indecent assault on one girl from 1960 to 1972 then a second from 1992. Mr Michael Grey, defending, said: “His wife suffers from angina and it is another concern for him because he will not be able to support her. He is in ill health and the affect of a prison sentence on him will be a punishment perhaps more than to others.”