July 2008 Man guilty of sexual abuse escapes jail A MAN who sexually abused two young children in the early 1970s has escaped jail because of his very poor health. Nigel May, 59, of Chapel Row, Widegates, Looe, had denied six charges of indecently assaulting a boy who was aged six or seven and one of indecently assaulting a seven-year-old girl. But a jury at Warwick Crown Court two months ago took just over an hour to find May guilty of all seven charges. After an adjournment for pre-sentence and medical reports to be prepared on him, May was sentenced at Coventry Crown Court last week to two years in prison suspended for two years and ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years. Prosecutor Heidi Kubik had said that at the time May lived with his parents, as he did until they died, at their home at Ashford Gardens in Whitnash, Warwickshire. When the boy’s mother visited the house, May would take the opportunity of being alone with him. May touched him intimately and also took his young victim’s hand to make the boy touch him. “The boy was very young at the time. He told nobody about it at the time. He bottled it up, but the knowledge and shame of what happened deeply affected him. “As he got older it was affecting his relationships with girlfriends and made it difficult for him to form relationships. “ In 2000 he went to his GP and broke down and told him about his childhood abuse.” He was referred for counselling, and then, wanting to finally put the matter to rest, he came forward to the police last year and told them what had happened to him. In fact, he was not alone, pointed out Miss Kubik, because in an incident which post-dated the offences against him, May had behaved inappropriately towards a young girl. He had stayed at the home of the girl’s parents for a night in the mid-70s, using her room while she slept downstairs, but she woke to find him sitting by her, holding her hand and trying to get her to touch him. “She was having none of it. She ran upstairs and told her mother who confronted him and asked him to leave in the middle of the night, and he did so. “Unfortunately, nothing else was done about it at the time.” That offence only came to light during the police investigation after May’s first victim made his complaint and May was traced to his home in Cornwall, where he was arrested. During his trail May denied any inappropriate behaviour towards the boy or staying at the girl’s home – and at the resumed hearing Judge Marten Coates pointed out that May continued to deny the offences to a probation officer. Edward Bailey, defending, conceded: “He realises he is at substantial risk of facing a custodial sentence. “But bearing in mind the medical evidence, I would suggest you do have the evidence to suspend the sentence on the basis of the exceptional circumstances of his health.” Mr Bailey said that May suffers from a serious heart condition, diabetes, obesity, depression and gout. He added that May ‘leads a sad and lonely life’, and as a result of the case has given up his active role with the gardening club in his village. Judge Coates said the indecency was ‘not at the most serious end of the scale’. He told May: “I cannot ignore the fact that the indictment covers offences more than 30 years ago. “You have been extremely lucky. It is your poor health, coupled with the fact that these offences are so old, that has saved you.”