February 2017 Paedophile jailed for sexually assaulting five-year-old girl A former refuse collector has been jailed for five years after a judge told him that his sexual abuse of two young girls will have a long lasting effect on their lives. Philip Weeks sexually assaulted a five-year-old girl while he was baby sitting at a friend’s house and police discovered he had abused another young child 15 years earlier. He was jailed at Exeter Crown Court after a jury rejected his denials He was found guilty after the jury watched a video of the little girl giving a police interview in which she cuddled a fluffy purple doll while describing exactly what Weeks had done to her. Former scrap yard worker and refuse man Weeks, 59, of Ashleigh Road, Barnstaple, denied assault by penetration on the five-year-old in 2014 and two counts of indecency with the other child between 1999 and 2001. He was found guilty of all charges and jailed for five years by Recorder Mr Jeremy Wright, who also ordered him to sign on the sex offenders register and imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which will restrict his contact with children when he is released. He told him: “These were very serious offences. It is well known that offences such as this can and do have long term psychological effects on the victims. “One of them was aged only five and was therefore very vulnerable. I take into account your age, your poor health, and that you are of good character.” During the trial last month the jury heard that Weeks’ first sexual assaults took place around 2000. He spent a lot of time with the family of a young girl and took the opportunity to abuse her. He went on to sexually assault the five-year-old child, who was the daughter of long standing family friend, when he was at the mother’s home in Barnstaple in 2014. The mother allowed him to visit her home frequently and to help her out at bathtime but was horrified when her child told her about the incident with the sexual penetration with the spectacles. The five-year-old gave an interview to the police which was video recorded in which she is sat on a floor of a room in a special suite playing with a fluffy purple doll as she tells what she says happened to her. January 2017 Barnstaple scrap worker found guilty of abusing five-year-old girl A former scrap metal has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a five year-old girl in the bath with the arm of his spectacles. Philip Weeks claimed he had no sexual interest in children but was convicted of abusing not only the little girl but another child 15 years earlier. A jury at Exeter Crown Court rejected his claim that he had never taken a pair of spectacles into the bathroom, where he was trusted by the girl’s mother to help her bath. Former scrap yard worker and refuse man Weeks, 60, of Ashleigh Road, Barnstaple, denied assault by penetration on the five-year-old in 2014 and two counts of indecency with the other child between 1999 and 2001. He was found guilty of all charges and Recorder Mr Jeremy Wright adjourned sentence for a month for a probation pre sentence report. He released Weeks on a tagged curfew, but told him: “This is the sort of case where prison sentences can be passed and that is a clear possibility and likelihood.” The prosecution alleged Weeks’ first sexual assaults took place around 2000 when he spent a lot of time with the family of a young girl and took the opportunity to abuse one of her schoolfriends. They allege he went on to sexually assault the five-year-old child. The girl’s mother allowed him to help her out at bathtime but was horrified when her child told her about the incident with the spectacles. The five-year-old gave an interview to the police which was video recorded in which she is sat on a floor of a room in a special suite playing with a fluffy purple doll as she tells what she says happened to her. Weeks denied both sets of offences. He said that around 2000 he sometimes stayed at the home of the complainant’s schoolfriend and remembers her visiting. He said he gave the girls piggy backs and played with them but there had been nothing sexual. He said: “I did not have any sexual interest in them they were young girls and I thought they were just good company.” He also denied assaulting the five-year-old in the bath. He said he sometimes helped the girl’s mother at bath time because the child used to splash water around ‘like a tsunami’. He said he normally stayed by the open door with the child’s mother just a few feet away and often within sight of him and the girl. He said the only pair of spectacles he used at that house were kept in a downstairs kitchen cupboard, well away from the bathroom, and he only used them for reading things when he was in the kitchen. He said: “There was never any sexual motivation. I never touched the girl when she was in the bath. Her mother would get her out and wrap her in a big towel. “I never took a pair of glasses into the bathroom. If I used them I would put them back in the kitchen. If I didn’t do that I knew I would never find them again.”