March 2014
Truro child rapist left victim notes saying he was sorry
A TRURO man who raped a young girl more than a dozen times and left her notes saying sorry, has been jailed for 10 years.
Christopher Harris, 51, subjected the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to a series of sexual assaults and rapes, over a number of years from 1987.
On Thursday at Truro Crown Court, Harris of Four Acres Road, admitted three counts of indecently assaulting the girl and four of raping her between May 1987 and May 1992.
David Sapiecha, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the girl, who was aged under 10 when the abuse started, told police that on a number of occasions after he had raped her Harris would leave a note saying ‘sorry’.
He said: “She was conditioned to rip up the note and get rid of it.”
Mr Sapiecha said Harris had been cautioned by police in 1995 for indecently assaulting another girl.
Mr Sapiecha said: “I am confident enough to say he would have been dealt with differently today.”
He added that after the girl made a complaint to police last year, Harris had been arrested and interviewed.
He said: “The defendant was very open and candid.
“He did not deny any of the allegations and he accepted doing more than even [the girl] could remember.”
Judge Christopher Harvey Clark, QC, said it was clear that the abuse had had a significant affect on the girl in later life.
He said that in a victim impact statement given to police she described how she suffered from stress, anxiety and a lack of confidence and how the abuse may well have contributed to problems she had experienced in relationships.
Jason Beal, defending, said Harris had a vasectomy so there had not been any chance of the girl getting pregnant.
He said Harris was “well aware” of how his behaviour had affected his victim and that he had told his wife, who was in court to support him, about the abuse in 2009.
He said: “In many ways he knew that today would occur at some stage over the last 20 years.”
Sentencing, Judge Harvey Clark, said Harris had perpetuated “terrible sexual abuse” on the girl and ordered him to sign the sex offenders’ register.
