The former Withernsea man moved out to Alicante, but has been ordered to surrender his passport after being found guilty of sex offences
John Sandell has been ordered to surrender his passport(Image: Hull Live)
A pensioner who lived in the sunshine hotspot of Alicante has been banned from returning to the popular Spanish coastal city – after being convicted of sexual offences against a young girl. John Sandell was refused permission to go back to the beach-and-sun Costa Blanca port and he was ordered to surrender his passport within 24 hours.
It would have been too great a risk to allow him to return to Spain before sentencing, Hull Crown Court heard. Sandell, 75, who previously lived in the Withernsea area before later moving to Alicante, denied six offences of indecency with a child but he was convicted by a jury after a trial on majority verdicts of 11 to one.
He also denied two other similar offences and two of indecent assault and he was cleared of those. The verdicts came after deliberations of 10 hours and 16 minutes spanning two days.
After the guilty verdicts, sentence was adjourned for reports and defence barrister Julia Baggs said that Sandell had, throughout the proceedings, been living in Alicante – but he had returned to this country for court hearings without any problems. She asked for his bail to be continued on the same terms.
Deputy circuit judge Peter Kelson said, however, that allowing Sandell to continue living in Alicante “complicated” the situation. “I am not comfortable with the defendant returning to Spain,” he said.
“I impose a condition of bail that the defendant must reside in the UK and he must surrender his passport to the police within 24 hours. On that understanding, he can leave the dock.”
Sandell was ordered to live with his sister in the Withernsea area until the day of sentence and to speak to the police’s officer in the case, who was sitting in the public gallery, to arrange to hand over his passport. They spoke outside the courtroom to make arrangements for this.
During the trial, the court heard that Sandell was caught with the young girl while they were in a caravan in East Yorkshire. The girl’s mother heard laughing and discovered them together.
“He just froze and didn’t say anything,” said the woman. There were two girls in the caravan
“I didn’t expect to see such a sight,” said the mother. “All I could think was to get the girls out of the caravan. He was saying it was not what it looked like and nothing had happened. I didn’t believe him.”
During his defence evidence, Sandell, also a former Blackpool hotelier, denied any indecency with the girl. “No, never,” he claimed.
But prosecutor Ben Hammersley told him: “You are lying to this jury, aren’t you?” He claimed that Sandell groomed and sexually abused the girl.
“She had no reason to make it up,” said Mr Hammersley. “These things happened, didn’t they?” Sandell replied: “No, they didn’t. Not true.”
Mr Hammersley said: “You gave her cakes and treats.” Sandell replied: “No.” He denied taking the girl to Hull Fair and showing her videos that were inappropriate for her age.
Mr Hammersley claimed: “You were doing this to try to gain her trust and favour. You wanted to make her feel special, didn’t you? You wanted to build a closeness with her. You were grooming her.” Sandell replied: “No.”
Mr Hammersley said: “You knew it was wrong. You told her not to say anything. Your conversations with her became sexual.” Sandell replied: “Never.”
Mr Hammersley said of the caravan incident: “You were caught red-handed and tried to cover your tracks.” Sandell tried to pretend that there was “no hankypanky” involving the girl. He replied: “No.”
During police interview, Sandell made no comment to all questions. “I didn’t know what to do because I had never been in court before,” he claimed.
“I was told to say ‘No comment’ so that’s what I said.” He had no previous convictions, the court heard.
Sandell told the court that he was arrested in Manchester and was taken to a police station after hearing that the police wanted to speak to him about something. “I thought I was going to be giving information about an ongoing trial,” he claimed.
Mr Hammersley told him: “Until you were faced with these allegations in 2022, you thought you had got away with it.” Sandell replied: “Not true at all. I didn’t know I was going to be arrested. I was in shock.”
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