Bedworth man jailed for multiple historic sexual offenses

A formerly resident of Bedworth, Melvyn Phillips, who used the alias Melvyn Hill at the time of his offending, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for a series of horrific sexual crimes committed in the 1970s and 1980s. Last month, a jury at Warwick Crown Court found Phillips, aged 58, guilty of 21 charges, including multiple counts of rape, indecency, and serious sexual assault. As described by the prosecuting attorney Kristina Montgomery, Phillips was "intimidatory and persuasive" during the offenses. Upon his release, he will be compelled to register as a sex offender for life. Remarkably, none of his victims disclosed the abuse at the time, and the crimes only came to light last year. The court heard that Phillips began abusing a girl in Bedworth during the late 1970s and went on to sexually abuse two other girls, all aged between 10 and 12. Phillips claimed that his memory of the offenses was hazy due to heavy drinking and medication, a point supported by his lawyer Robert Hodgkinson, who suggested his "determination to fight this" indicated a genuine inability to recall the incidents. Judge Marten Coates sentenced him, calling the acts "appalling in the extreme."