stephen cavanagh Rapist

April 1998 Man jailed for offences ‘despicable beyond words’ AN EASTHAM man has been jailed for 11 years for raping one young boy and sexually abusing another.

Judge Gerald Clifton told Stephen Cavanagh that the offences were ‘despicable beyond words’ and that he did not deserve any mercy.

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court found Cavanagh, aged 33, of Mallowdale Road, guilty of two buggeries against one boy when he was five and of raping the same boy when he was nine.

He was also convicted of two indecent assaults against the other five-year-old boy.

The jury cleared him of a further indecent assault against that boy and Judge Clifton directed a not guilty verdict on an allegation of indecent assault involving the older boy, and discharged the jury from returning a verdict on a further similar charge involving that boy.

During a six-day trial the court heard that Cavanagh committed one of the offences in a derelict house in Tranmere.

Matters came to light after the younger boy spoke to his mother, and the older boy was then spoken to, said Mr Neil Flewitt, QC, prosecuting.

Cavanagh, who denied the offences, said the boys had made it all up.

He was ordered to register under the Sex Offenders’ Act for life.