March 2009 Child rapist jailed for 18 years A PERVERT who repeatedly abused four schoolgirls has been jailed for 18 years. Keith Cox, 61, attacked the young girls over 32 years at addresses in Pitsea, Noak Bridge, Billericay and Waltham Cross. Cox, who committed the offences between 1975 and 2007, was found guilty by a jury of 15 separate sex charges at Basildon Crown Court. He was convicted of seven counts of indecent assault, three counts of assault by penetration of a child under 13, two counts of rape and two of attempted rape plus committing gross indecency with a child. During the trial, the four victims gave evidence and told of the sickening abuse they had suffered. One woman told the court she only found out her friend had been sexually abused as a teenager when she spoke to staff from a children’s charity. The witness told jurors how the victim, aged between 13 and 15, regularly visited her home in Noak Bridge. On one occasion, the girl turned up looking “sad and confused”. The woman told how the victim refused to tell her directly what was wrong and asked her to go to a phone box to speak to a representative from charity ChildLine. It was then she learned her friend had been abused by Cox. The second alleged victim told police she had been sexually assaulted by Cox when she was aged between seven and 11. Cox of Woburn Place, Billericay, is said to have moved on to his third victim in the Nineties when she was just four years old. The court heard the fourth victim was first attacked by Cox when she was eight and the abuse continued for four years. The women only reported the allegations last August. Cox was found not guilty of one charge, causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and indecency with a child.