The victim was left feeling ‘like a thing, not a person’, a court heard
A perverted pensioner has been jailed after leaving a young girl “horrified, disgusted and freaked out” because of his “serious” sexual abuse of her, which made her feel “like a thing, not a person”. Philip Tomlinson vigorously denied that he did anything wrong and he “fought it to the bitter end” during a five-day trial at Hull Crown Court.
Tomlinson, 73, of North Street, Bridlington, denied a series offences of indecent assault but he was convicted by a jury of all of them. His determination to fight a trial meant that he was “going to pay” for that through getting no credit for guilty pleas, the court heard.
Julia Baggs, prosecuting, said that Tomlinson sexually abused the girl on a number of occasions and he sometimes gave her alcohol before doing so. A sexualised picture of the girl’s head superimposed onto the body of a naked woman was found.
The victim said in a statement that she was “scared of him” and felt unsafe. “I didn’t really understand what was going on or the gravity of it,” she said.
“It made me feel like a thing, not a person. It made me withdrawn. I didn’t have a lot of trust in anybody.”
She felt “horrified, disgusted and freaked out” by what happened. “Even now, my self-esteem has been so impacted by him,” she said.
During the trial, Tomlinson denied the allegations against him. He told the court: “I have got no sexual interest in her – far from it. I can’t understand why she is making these allegations.
“None of it is true. I never groomed her by giving her cider. I never touched her sexually – absolutely not.”
Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, mitigating after the verdicts, said that Tomlinson had committed no further offences since the incidents and he was now was in some ill-health. He had some very old but dissimilar previous convictions, the court heard.
Judge Mark Bury said that Tomlinson committed a “campaign of sexual abuse” against the girl and he sometimes “plied her with alcohol” during a “grotesque” breach of how he should have behaved.
The victim had been “courageous” in coming forward and she had the comfort of knowing that she had been believed by the jury. Judge Bury told Tomlinson: “You don’t have any courage at all. In cases like this, chickens have a habit of coming home to roost. Her life has been blighted by what you did to her.
“I hope she will gain immense satisfaction from standing up for herself and being believed. You can claim no credit for a plea of guilty. You fought it to the bitter end and, for that, you are going to pay.”
Tomlinson was jailed for eight years and he will be on extended licence of one year after his release from prison. He must register as a sex offender for life. “You will not be eligible for release until the Parole Board decide that you are fit to be released,” said Judge Bury.
He told the victim: “I hope you get closure from today. The rest of your life starts now.”