June 2014 Jail for sex attacker who sexually assaulted girl, 12 A PAEDOPHILE who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl, leaving her world “turned upside down”, has been jailed. Peter Gates, 48, of Elizabeth Avenue, carried out the sickening attack in Chadwell Heath on November 17, 2012. He was sentenced yesterday (June 2) to two years and four months in prison. In her victim impact statement, read by Judge Martin Zeidman QC, she said: “I did not fully understand what was going on. “The night I told my family our world was turned upside down. “Every time someone brings him up my throat stops working and I feel like something is stuck in there.” Gates was found guilty of sexual assault on a child but acquitted of raping the same victim after a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court. A further 11 counts of sexual assault, relating to the same girl between the ages of six and 12, were ordered to lie on the court file. Gates still maintains he never did anything wrong. Sentencing, Judge Zeidman said: “You have done something very terrible and the consequences of your actions will last for a very long time. “Much longer than the imprisonment that you will suffer. “I am sentencing you on one single count of sexual assault. You were found not guilty of rape and despite two trials the jury have not found verdicts on the other counts. “They could not be sure the long-term abuse from ages six to 12 on the victim was concrete – I mention this only to reinforce that I must not assume you are guilty of any other wrongdoing. “No-one exactly knows what long-term harm you will have done to her.” Gates was sentenced to serve 28 months in prison and will remain on the Sex Offenders’ Register for the next ten years. The court heard Gates had tried to kill himself in February 2013 after his wife filed divorce papers when the allegations of child sex abuse came to light.