NOTTINGHAM PENSIONER RESPONSIBLE FOR 'HORRENDOUS' SEXUAL ABUSE AGAINST YOUNG GIRLS SAID THEY MADE IT ALL UP
A man who sexually abused young girls has been jailed for 25 years – more than three decades after his last offence.Kevin Knott, 70, was arrested in 2019 after several allegations were made against him.
After a painstaking investigation by detectives at Nottinghamshire Police, he was charged with a range of sexual offences committed against two girls who were aged between five and 12 years old.
The offences took place in multiple addresses in Nottingham and Devon in the 1970s and 1980s and were first reported to police in April 2019.
Officers from the force’s public protection team took detailed accounts from the complainants and interviewed several other key witnesses.
Knott denied that any of the offences had happened and claimed his accusers were making them up.
A trial jury, however, disagreed and convicted him of two counts of having sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, 11 counts of indecent assault of a girl under 14, and two counts of gross indecency with a child under 14.
Knott was also convicted of a further four counts of indecent assault committed against another girl when he was still a child.
Because of his age at the time of the offences in the 1960s, he received no separate penalty, but the offences were treated as an aggravating factor in his sentence.
Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday, Knott, of Staverton Road, Bilborough, was jailed for a total of 25 years.
Detective Constable Richard Robertson, of Nottinghamshire Police, has been leading the investigation.
He said: “Knott was responsible for a horrendous and calculating catalogue of offences that would have gone unpunished without the bravery of his victims, who showed remarkable courage and stoicism in explaining so clearly what Knott had put them through all those years ago.
