A prolific paedophile who undertook a “campaign of sexual abuse” against his victims cried as he heard he may not live to see the end of his sentence.
Allan Mitchell, 75, of Washington Parade, Bootle, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday after pleading guilty to over 30 sexual offences against two victims. Ben Jones, prosecuting, detailed that Mitchell groomed and repeatedly abused a young teenage girl over a period of five years, and assaulted another girl in the 1970s.
Mr Jones said the offending came to light after Mitchell took the first victim to a wooded area last year with the intention of making her sleep with other men. Mitchell made the girl change into “skimpy clothing”, and then as two dog walkers approached, lifted her top and asked them if they “liked what they saw”.
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Mr Jones said: “The witnesses were obviously shocked and reported the matter to the police immediately. “When police arrived the defendant had made off abandoning his car and the victim denied that anything had happened.”
After this offence, the victim initially denied the incident but when told that her phone was going to be checked, she broke down and revealed that the abuse had been happening for many years. In an interview with police, the victim said Mitchell had taken her to the woods several times, and made her remove her underwear, which was later found in his flat.
She said he would get “loud and angry” if she was not compliant. In a second interview, the victim detailed that Mitchell had taken naked photographs of her in public using an iPad. Mitchell was later found to have several partially naked images of this victim in a folder on his phone labelled “for my eyes only”.
Mitchell also instructed the underage girl to take naked pictures of herself and send them to him. She said she witnessed him send these photographs to his friend, and comment “how great they are” before asking her to delete them.
The victim said Mitchell told her he was “teaching her about what would happen to her in the future”. Mr Jones said: “She remembered he would take blue pills before he would come to see her to help him have better sex.
“He would buy them online and make her watch him buy them, he would say to her that the pills would help him have better sex with her.” A court also heard that during his interview with the probation service prior to sentence, Mitchell blamed this victim, stating that she was “leading him on” and “initiated sexual contact”.
The pensioner was interviewed three times and initially claimed the two people in the woods had approached the victim sexually, but then gave no further comment in the second and third interview. After the allegations against Mitchell came to light, a second victim came forward stating that Mitchell sexually assaulted her when she was a young child, by touching her breasts over clothing.
She described the defendant as being "creepy" and a "sleaze". Mitchell has no previous convictions, and pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault, four counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration, and one count of indecent assault, all of a girl under 13.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of assault by penetration, four counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, eight counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of rape, two counts of taking indecent images of a child, one count of possessing indecent images of children, two counts of causing a person to engage in sexual activity, all of a girl over 13.
Tom Watson, defending, said his client wished to express his remorse through him for his crimes, and said he had serious health issues. Mr Watson referenced the claims made in Mitchell's interview with the probation service, but said his client “does not hesitate in taking responsibility for what he has done” in other parts of the interview.
He said those claims made were simply a “pathetic defence mechanism on his part”, and said when asked “bluntly”, Mitchell said “it is my responsibility I was the adult here and I was responsible”.
Mr Watson added: “These are truly dreadful examples of this type of offending, he has behaved in the most depraved and appalling way towards his victims. “He can never put that right.
“He knows that his victims bear the scars for what has done, he acknowledges that through me. “He is not a man who is going to find the prison environment easy to adjust to because of his age and the label of the offences for which he finds himself there.”
“He may not survive the sentence that is going to be imposed upon him and if he does, he will be a very old, geriatric man.” Mitchell cried throughout proceedings, but became visibly more upset at this comment. In sentencing, His Honour Judge Denis Watson said: “You carried out a campaign of sexual abuse.
“You groomed the victim very effectively so far as your purposes were concerned and the abuse that you perpetrated soon became so regular that I am sad to say, it became normal to her. “The effects of this will be with her likely forever, she cannot even talk about what happened to her.
“There are a number of aspects of concern not least your continued suggestion that she shares some of the responsibility for ‘leading you on’. “You are shaking your head but that is what you told the probation service.”
Judge Watson concluded that Mitchell was a dangerous offender and described the offending as “one of the worst cases I have come across in many many years”. The 75-year-old was sentenced to 17 years and three months imprisonment, plus a one year extended licence, totalling 18 years and three months.
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