March 2016 Sex offender jailed for 11 years for attacks on 3 girls A SEX offender branded a “bare-faced liar” has been jailed for 11 years for a catalogue of offences against three girls in their late teens. York Crown Court heard how over a period of five months, Steven Grant, of Maltongate, Thornton-le-Dale near Pickering, groomed the girls and then used them sexually. Reading out victim impact statements, Sophie Drake, prosecuting, said one of the girls had had months of nightmares and cried herself to sleep because what he did to her and another was so affected her schoolwork suffered. The court heard they were sisters, whom Grant met because he knew their mother. The Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, told Grant: “The saddest and most depressing aspect of this case is their own mother, who took your words over the words of her own children. She chose to disbelieve her own children. She should be thoroughly ashamed of herself.” Both sisters gave evidence against Grant before a jury, as did the third victim, who was a friend of the younger sister, and were accused of being liars. “There was only one bare-faced liar in this court, and that was you,” the judge told Grant. Grant, 37, denied 11 charges of sexual assaults, one attempted sexual assault and one of indecent exposure. Five of the offences were against the friend, five against the younger sister and three against the older sister. He was convicted by a jury of all charges by a majority of ten jurors to two after they had been in retirement for four hours and 45 minutes. Jailing him for 11 years, the judge said: “You have been convicted of a catalogue of offences of sexual abuse of teenage children. This was, in my judgement, a classic case of grooming, where your offences started in a non-threatening way, then progressed to serious intrusive sexual behaviour.” The third victim, who was 16 at the time of the offences, was a “deeply troubled” girl, and the sisters were frightened of Grant. The effect upon them had been “great”. The judge made a restraining order banning Grant from having any contact of any kind with any of the victims indefinitely. He was also put on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life. Defence barrister David Dixon said in mitigation after the verdicts: “All I can say in his case is to ask you to keep the sentences as short as possible. The defendant maintains his stance and I suspect always will.” Opening the prosecution at the start of the five-day trial, Miss Drake said Grant showed one of the victims pornography on the internet.