Crawley man jailed for '˜systematic' sexual attacks on a teenage girl

A Crawley man has been sentenced to prison for a series of '˜systematic' sexual attacks on a teenage girl, police have said.
By The Newsroom
Published 17th May 2016, 16:47 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 01:35 BST

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Photo by Sussex PolicePhoto by Sussex Police
Photo by Sussex Police

Verol Wynter, 56, unemployed, formerly of Chippendale Road, Crawley, and now of Brooke Road, Hackney, East London, appeared at Brighton Crown Court on Thursday (May 12).

Officers said he was sentenced to a total of three years imprisonment having been found guilty after a trial in February of three counts of sexual assaults, in Crawley, on the teenage victim.

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A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “These were specimen counts representing multiple assaults. He was given three years for each count, to be served concurrently.

“He will be a registered sex offender for life and was issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) to last indefinitely, severely restricting his access to children.”

Detective Constable Nicky Beard of the West Sussex Safeguarding Investigations Unit said: “The victim showed great courage in coming forward and giving evidence.

“Wynter had gradually managed to achieve a measure of coercion and control over her, taking advantage of her natural vulnerability to carry out a series of humiliating assaults.

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“In sentencing the court noted that Wynter’s behaviour towards her was grooming, an abuse of position of trust, abusive, manipulative and controlling and that the repeated sexual assaults had a severe psychological effect on her.

“This case again shows that we will always take such reports seriously, and will work to seek justice wherever possible and appropriate.”

Wynter had been found not guilty of a further count of sexual assaults on the same girl and not guilty of ten sexual assaults on another girl.

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Related topics:Sussex Police