June 2011 Norwich childminder jailed for sexually assaulting four young girls A Norwich childminder who abused his position of trust to sexually assault four young girls, the youngest of which was only four has been jailed for three years three months and placed on the sex offender’s register for life. Kenneth Hardy, 63, who first registered as a childminder in 2003, and spent a great deal of his life involved in child and youth groups, was also made subject to a sexual offences prevention order under which he must not have any unsupervised contact with children. Norwich Crown Court heard how Hardy, whose wife was also a childminder, sexually assaulted one four year old girl, two six year old girls and another girl, who was seven at the time, while they were in his care in his role as childminder in Heartsease, Norwich. One of the victims who was aged about seven at the time, said that he indecently touched her while checking her for chickenpox and another of the victims claimed he touched her while she was sitting on his lap. The allegations came to light after one of the girls told her mother what happened and police were contacted. Hardy of Coniston Road, Brooke, had denied sexual touching of the girls but was convicted of eight counts following a trial and appeared for sentence yesterday. Jailing him Judge Alasdair Darroch said Hardy had abused his position as a childminder: “You were in a position of trust.” He had also by his plea forced the young victims to come to court to give evidence. Nicholas Cotter defending said that Hardy had lost everything as a result of the offences including his good name. “He has lost everything in his life because of these offences. He has lost his social standing in his church, he has lost his reputation. He has lost everything.” He said that Hardy had done a great deal of good work in his life in relation to child and youth groups. “He will never be able to do that again.”. Mr Cotter said the measures put in place to protect the public would mean that Hardy would not be able to work in this field again even after his release from prison. “He is of low risk of re-offending. He is a man of 63 years of age and he will face some significant time in custody.” During the trial the court heard how Hardy became a childminder because of his wife who was working as a childminder for many years but she was not present when these offences took place. Hardy who has also worked with the Red Cross and the Christian Motorcycle Organisation was described as being of positive good character. After the verdict Det Con James Blake from Norfolk police child abuse investigation unit praised the bravery of the young victims who had to give evidence. He said: “Kenneth Hardy took advantage of very young children and abused their trust and the trust of their parents. Instead of caring for them he was committing sexual offences against them.”