April 2003
Pervert is jailed for seven years
A paedophile who carried out a sex attack on an 11-year-old boy as a present to himself for his 40th birthday was jailed for seven years yesterday.
David Swift (41), who has a history of sex offences dating back more than 20 years, pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting the boy when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court earlier this week.
The fast food restaurant manager, of Cottage Farm Road, Keresley, Coventry, was jailed for seven years and put on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life after a hearing at the same court yesterday.
The court heard how Swift attacked his victim at an isolated spot close to Gumbleberrys Close in Alum Rock on Swift’s birthday, October 23, 2001.
The boy, who has not been named, was going to meet friends when Swift attacked him near an old railway archway. Swift demanded the boy undress before indecently assaulting him.
Judge Trevor Faber told Swift: “You grabbed hold of him, pushed him against the wall and demanded to see his private parts.
“He was completely terrified by the way you treated him.”
Before letting the youngster go, he stole the boy’s underpants and demanded his name and address.
Judge Faber said: “Bravely and sensibly the boy gave you false details which you wrote on a piece of paper.
“The offence has affected the boy severely. For a number of weeks he was extremely distressed and so afraid of meeting you again, he would not go out on his own.” The court heard how Swift had a string of convictions
In 1980 he was sent to a young offenders’ institute for two years for an indecent assault, and in 1984 he was jailed for six months for lewd and libidinous behaviour in his native Scotland.
In 1986 he was sentenced to 14 years for five offences of assault and robbery, which Judge Faber said were very similar to the Birmingham offence.
Swift was serving a 12-month sentence for abducting a young boy in Coventry when police arrested him for the attack on the Birmingham youngster.
Judge Faber told him: “You have a morbid interest in offences of this kind. There is no doubt you present a serious danger to the public and young boys in particular.
“You need to be punished and the public needs to be protected from you for as long as possible.
“Had you had a trial on this matter and convicted, I would have applied the maximum possible sentence for this offence, which in this country is ten years.”
The judge said Swift’s guilty pleas and desire to desist from offending made him reduce the sentence to seven years, to run concurrently with one year for the theft of the underpants
He recommended Swift serve at least half of his sentence before being considered for parole.
Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Sergeant Gareth Knowles from Queens Road CID, said: “This was one of the worst attacks I have ever investigated. Nothing is going to give this boy his life back, his innocence has been lost forever.
“But I am pleased that the public is going to be protected from Swift for a number of years while he is in prison.
“He will be placed on the sex offenders’ register which means he can be monitored for the rest of his life.”
