September 2017 Serial sex offender is jailed for abuse of young girl A MAN who sexually abused a vulnerable young girl a decade before he molested two other children is back behind bars. Michael Burgess was jailed for nine years in 2012 after he admitted a series of sex offences against two youngsters at his caravan in Heywood. A decade earlier the 43-year-old had sex with a friend’s daughter when she was just 11 or 12 years old, Swindon Crown Court was told. Now Burgess, who has been living in Wylye since his release from prison, is starting a 13-year jail term after being found guilty of those offences following a trial. He will not be able to apply for parole until he has served two-thirds of the sentence and will be on licence for an extra three years. The victim, now a woman in her 20s, said she felt guilty that she had not reported the matter earlier and prevented the other victims going through a similar ordeal. During the trial she told how Burgess visited her home when she was about 11 and carried out the abuse. She said that he had promised her a pair of boots she wanted from a catalogue, but never bought them for her. Hannah Squire, prosecuting, said that in a victim personal statement the woman told of the effect the abuse had on her life. She said that more than 15 years on she is still receiving counselling, has nightmares, issues forming relationships and problems trusting others. “Even now as an adult I try to avoid being alone with people,” she wrote. Burgess, of Glebe Bungalows, Wylye, pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse with a child under 13 but was convicted after a trial. The court heard he was jailed for nine years, with a three-year extended licence, in 2012 after admitting abusing two girls and having 1,636 indecent images of children. On that occasion he abused a 10-year-old girl in 2011 while on bail for molesting another aged about 14 or 15 in the previous couple of years. Jailing him Judge Tim Mousley QC said: “You have undoubtedly made significant progress. “But I have come to the conclusion, even taking that into account, that you present a significant risk of serious harm in the future.”