August 2007 Child abuse OAP is jailed A PENSIONER has been jailed for sexually abusing a four-year-old girl. John Pumfrey, 67, pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday to two charges of indecently assaulting the youngster and a further three of gross indecency with a child. He also admitted nine offences of possessing indecent photographs of children. James Harrison, prosecuting, said the indecent assault and gross indecency charges were specimen counts and involved a young girl aged between four and 10. Offences occurred between April 1975 and April, 1982. When police arrested Pumfrey at his home in Northfield Road, Saffron Walden last August they found a collection of perverted imagery. Mr Harrison said the photos were not of children being abused “but adult images with children’s faces superimposed”. Graham Brown, acting in Pumfrey’s defence, said no force or threats had been used against the girl. He added Pumfrey had been married 40 years and that the “proceedings and the shame he has brought on his family have brought home to him that this conduct is not acceptable”. Jailing him for four years, Judge Rodger Hayward Smith QC said the sex abuse offences were so serious that only a lengthy custodial sentence was appropriate. “They have had an adverse, long term effect on the victim,” he said. Pumfrey was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register.