November 2009 Year in prison for sex offender The fourth man charged as part of Jersey police’s ongoing historic abuse inquiry has been sentenced to 12 months in prison. Ronald George Thorne, 71, from St Helier, was sentenced in the Royal Court for sexual offences. He had pleaded guilty to gross indecency offences with a 14-year-old boy, committed in the early 1980s. Thorne’s offences were not linked to abuse at the former children’s home Haut de la Garenne. Det Insp Alison Fossey, from States of Jersey police, said she hoped Thorne’s victim “has received some comfort from the decision reached by the court”.