SEX OFFENDER IS JAILED
A Colchester man who targeted children in the town’s centre with inappropriate touching and kissing has been given a prison sentence.Stefan Pritchard, aged 32, committed multiple sexual offences against four girls aged between 11 and 14 from July 2021 up to June this year.
One girl, aged 14, reported that Pritchard groped her from under her skirt, leading to her suffering panic attacks and flashbacks.
Judge David Turner KC at Chelmsford Crown Court stated that the incidents appeared to reflect Pritchard’s deep feelings of loneliness and personal turmoil.
Pritchard, residing on Fingringhoe Road in Colchester, admitted to four counts of sexual assault on a child, two charges of assaulting a police officer or emergency worker, and one count of sexual assault of a girl under 13.
He received a sentence of two years and nine months behind bars.
During the hearing, prosecutor Emma Kutner outlined that Pritchard’s offending started when he reached up a 14-year-old girl’s skirt and grabbed her bottom in Queen Street in July 2021.
In September, he stroked the hair of an 11-year-old and told her she looked beautiful as she walked alongside her mother.
The following month, he hugged a 14-year-old girl from behind, kissed her on the neck, cheek, and lips, and touched her breast.
She also reported that one of the girls was so shaken that she was crying and felt unable to go out again.
Another girl, aged 13, was stroked on her breasts and thighs while in North Hill in November 2021.
Pritchard’s last offence involved approaching a girl in school uniform in June, asking if she wanted to spend time alone, then grabbing her neck and pulling her closer.
The court heard that Pritchard suffers from a mild disorder affecting his intellectual development, but Judge Turner made it clear that this did not justify his conduct, calling his acts unprovoked and gratuitous public sexual assaults.
His defense lawyer, Donal Lawler, argued that Pritchard’s early life circumstances left him with little hope of avoiding such behavior, describing him as a profoundly damaged individual.
A Sexual Harm Prevention Order has been issued against him for ten years.
