A convicted pensioner who sexually assaulted a girl in Oxford more than 20 years ago has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail by a court.
Kenneth Harper was convicted of sexually assaulting a girl between 2003 and 2005 by at Oxford Crown Court on September 21.
The 64-year-old, of Plymouth, had denied the offence, but a jury found him guilty by unanimous verdict.
The jury had heard at trial that Harper had previously been jailed for eight years for serious sexual offences in Oxford in 2008.
At a hearing on Friday, October 16, Judge Michael Roques sentenced the pensioner to another jail term.
Harper had sexually assaulted a child aged between 12 and 13 in Oxford after plying her with alcohol.
The girl had ‘passed out’ after several drinks and awoke to the offender, who was between 42 and 43 years old at the time, with his hand under her clothes.
She abruptly got up, and went to the bathroom where she vomited, at least in part due to ‘the sheer horror of what she had awoken to’, Judge Roques said.
At the trial, the jury heard evidence from the victim, through a video interview given to the police, in which she said: “He said he'd give us drinks. We ended up falling asleep on a sofa. I remember waking up and his hand was in my clothing.
"I jumped up and ran into a bathroom and I was sick."
She added: "He was just a bit creepy. I felt a bit awkward around him. I just thought he was pretty strange. He made me feel a bit uneasy.
"He didn't say anything, it was like it had never happened. I was scared, I wanted to go home. I just went on with my life, I just forgot about it.”
He said a victim personal statement from the woman had demonstrated the enduring impact the assault had on her life, especially regarding fears about the safety of her own children now, more than 20 years later.
Mitigating counsel Francesca Whebell said Harper did not remember any of the offences he committed at the time as he was a ‘severe alcoholic’.
But the judge said: “I am afraid I simply do not accept that you could not remember your offending.”
Since serving the sentence imposed in 2008, Harper had gone on to commit further sexual offences against vulnerable adults, which he was convicted of in 2022.
READ MORE: Oxford - Pensioner found guilty of sexually assaulting girl
Passing his sentencing remarks, Judge Roques said the offence was aggravated by the ‘grooming’ involved, the abuse of trust, the use of alcohol to facilitate the abuse and the vulnerability of the girl.
These were all aggravating factors in the jail term he imposed, taking into account ‘totality’ from the previous sentence Harper was handed for the abuse of another child around the same time.
Harper was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail, or 66 months, and will remain on the Sexual Offender’s Register indefinitely.
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