March 2017 Paedophile builder abused children who kicked ball into his garden A businessman has been jailed for sexually assaulting a girl after she kicked a ball into the garden of his home. Kevin Benham invited the girl and a friend into his home, gave them sweets and showed them two puppies before inviting them on a tour of his house in Barnstaple He assaulted one of the girls after they went into what he called his princess bedroom, where there was a pink toybox, a four-poster bed and a collection of teddy bears. The girls started throwing the bears at each other and he then grabbed two of the cuddly toys and started a playfight during which he put his hand inside the shorts of one of the children. Benham is a well known and successful businessman who has run his own house building company for more than a decade and has developed sites all over Devon. He denied any form of sexual touching and said he was ‘flummoxed’ by the allegations. He had no previous convictions, and said the Princess Room had been decorated for his six grandchildren. Benham, 59, now of Cornborough Road, Westward Ho! denied two counts of sexual assault but was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court and jailed for four years by Judge Geoffrey Mercer QC. The judge also imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which restricts Benham’s future contact with children and ordered him to sign on the sex offenders’ register for life. He told him: “You did not seek or bring about the situation in which you found yourself that afternoon, alone at you home with your victim and her friend, but you took advantage of it. You got them upstairs and could not resist the temptation of doing what you did. Underlying this is a sexual interest in young girls which at that moment you could not resist. “I have read the victim’s impact statement and that of her mother. It is quite apparent you caused untold damage and continuing harm to her and a continuing effect on her life. I hope she will now be able to put it behind her.” During a three-day trial the girl and her friend said they were playing near his former home when they kicked a ball into his garden. They said on the first occasion she Benham returned it and gave them sweets. On the second visit, he offered them a tour of his house, including the princess room. The victim said he had tickled her before putting a hand inside her shorts and touching her over her underwear. Her friend said Benham tickled them both and she saw him touch the girl’s bottom. Benham said he had decorated the princess room for his six grandchildren and had sweets in the house because it was three days before Halloween in 2015. He said he had nuzzled two teddy bears into the two girls as they played on the four-poster after they started throwing them at each other and him. He said he may have touched the girl’s bottom by accident but had not done so deliberately and had no sexual motive. He denied putting his hand inside her shorts. He said: “The allegations are crazy. I am flummoxed by them. I just got a couple of teddies and rummaged all over them, They were giggling and laughing. I did not touch either of them sexually. I haven’t done that in any shape or form. I was just rummaging with the bears and making silly ‘grrr’ noises.” Benham said he had been a builder all his working life and run his own company for more than 10 years. He was working from home running various projects around the area on the day in question.