July 2012 6 years for man who abused girl A FORMER Newent newsagent has been jailed for six years for sexually abusing a girl. John Kirby, aged 63, who ran Newent News in Broad Street for 22 years, molested the girl in the back of his shop, Gloucester Crown Court was told. Last year she confided in a teacher, said prosecutor Simon Burns. That led to her going to the police. Kirby, of Craddock Road, was jailed after he admitted one offence of sexual activity with a girl and six offences of sexually assaulting her. Passing sentence Judge Tabor said: “There is no doubt she has been deeply affected by your conduct. I suspect she will remain deeply affected for a long time to come.” Kirby admitted touching the girl intimately several times. The court heard the girl, who was aged between 11 and 13 at the time of the offences, has been bullied after revelations had spilt out onto social networking site Facebook. Judge Jamie Tabor QC warned there must be no identification of the girl in any further social network messages. The law banning identification of child sex victims applied just as much to Facebook as to newspapers and the media, he said. “If it occurs it is a breach of the law and a contempt of court is punishable by imprisonment,” Police were monitoring Facebook for breaches. Sarah Jenkins, defending, said Kirby was full of remorse and recognised the impact his offending had on the girl. Judge Tabor jailed Kirby for six years for sexual activity and four years concurrently for the six offences of sexual assault. He made a Sexual Offences Prevention order indefinitely and also ordered Kirby to sign the sex offenders register for life.