LOUIS PRINCE OF CHELTENHAM SENTENCED FOR CHILD ABUSE IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Update: Louis Prince has now been released to a bail hostel in Central Gloucester. It is anticipated that he will soon relocate back to Cheltenham.

September 2010

A 42-year-old man, Louis Prince of Bridge Street, Cheltenham, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for repeatedly raping a young girl who had previously been a victim of sexual abuse by another individual.

Prince admitted to systematic abuse of the girl over a two-year period. Judge William Hart addressed him in court, stating: “You perverted, corrupted and ruined this child by a course of systematic and sustained depravity of the grossest kind. You had full sexual intercourse with that little girl, probably dozens of times. Your own irrepressible desire for sexual gratification was your only consideration.”

During the hearing at Gloucester Crown Court, the judge highlighted that Prince’s actions were particularly grave because he was aware that the girl had already been subjected to prior abuse. He described Prince as heavily built, shaven-headed, dressed in a black suit, shirt, tie, and white trainers.

Prince pleaded guilty to five counts of rape of the girl over two years, along with one charge of attempted rape and one of sexual activity with a child. Prosecutor Michael Mather-Lees explained: “She states that intercourse sometimes took place twice a day. There would be a gap of months or more and sometimes it would be once or twice during a week. The defendant does not accept the frequency of intercourse she alleges but he certainly admits it happened seven times.”

The offences surfaced in July of the same year when the girl contacted emergency services, making a 999 call to report the abuse, Mr. Mather-Lees added.

It was revealed that Prince attempted to prevent the girl from reporting him by threatening to say he couldn’t handle prison and that he'd kill himself if he was discovered.

While he had prior convictions in the 1980s and early 1990s for dishonesty, criminal damage, and public disorder, he had no previous convictions for sexual offences.

Judge Hart described Prince’s conduct as “about as bad of their kind as could be imagined” and stated that the sentence should exceed the recommendations of the Sentencing Guidelines Council. He explained that if Prince had contested the charges at trial and been convicted, the sentence could have been up to 20 years. However, in light of his early guilty plea, the sentence was reduced to 13 years.

Additionally, Prince was disqualified from working with children, required to sign the sex offenders register for life, and placed under an indefinite sexual offences prevention order.