August 2007 Man jailed for sex assault on babysitter A MAN who indecently touched a 13-year-old girl as she babysat for his children has been jailed for nine months. John Cox ran his hand over the youngster as she lay in bed in the same room as the younger children. The 60-year-old put his hand under the girl’s pyjamas and touched her indecently one night between autumn 1999 and late 2000. Although she told people what had happened at the time, it was not reported to the police until after she turned 18. Cox, of Gipsy Lane, Eldene, denied a charge of indecent assault but was convicted by a jury after a trial at Swindon Crown Court. Noel Sweeney, defending, said that his client still maintained his innocence about the matter from almost eight years ago. However, he said what Cox had been convicted of was at the lower end of the spectrum for indecent assaults. “Unlike some of these incidents there was nothing in the way of threats, nothing in the way of violence, nothing in the way of bribery, nothing in the way of secrets,” he said. In the years following the offence he said the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, still had contact with Cox. He also pointed out that probation officers had assessed his client as being a low risk of re-offending. Mr Sweeney said the court had heard from another girl who used to babysit for Cox and she said he had given her lifts home and behaved properly. His client had worked all his adult life and at one point brought up his son as a single parent. He urged the court to not pass an immediate jail term, pointing out that sex offenders were kept away from other prisoners for their own protection which meant that his client was at risk of coming out worse. Jailing Cox, Judge Douglas Field said: “The complainant in this case was 13 years old at the time. “She was entitled to put her trust in you and you breached that trust on the night in question. “The nature of the indecent assault was this: when she was in the room with the children she was babysitting in bed you went into that room, ran your hand over her body under her pyjamas, including her pubic area. “I am quite satisfied immediately thereafter and in the ensuing years this incident has had a very adverse affect on this young lady.” As well as jailing him, the judge banned Cox from working with children ever again and ordered he register as a sex offender for 10 years.