January 2008
Child molester loses appeal bid
A MAN from Bishop’s Stortford who enticed a little girl to commit a sex act on him has failed to persuade top judges he should be allowed to appeal against his conviction.
Mark Huckerby, 32, formerly of Swallow Court, was sentenced to two years in jail at Luton Crown Court on July 11 last year for two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Yesterday, Thursday January 24, 2008 at London’s Criminal Appeal Court he argued that his conviction was “unsafe” because of alleged flaws in the trial judge’s summing up to the jury.
But Mr Justice Wilkie, sitting with Mr Justice Wyn Williams, said the abuse of the young girl came to light when she told her mother what had happened. She said she had been made to commit a sex act on Huckerby about 30 times.
Refusing the appeal, Mr Justice Wilkie said: “The judge’s summing up was entirely fair. There is no reason to regard the conviction as unsafe.”
September 2007
‘He stole my little girl’s childhood’
AS a Bishop’s Stortford man begins a two-year jail term for sexually abusing a six-year-old girl, the victim’s mother has told the Observer of the life sentence the child now faces.
The girl, now eight, had to give evidence via a video link in the trial of 31-year-old Mark Huckerby, of Swallow Court, off Anchor Street.
He had denied two charges of inciting the girl to engage in sexual activity but was found guilty. The offences were committed between June 2004 and May 2006.
The girl’s mother told the Observer: “He could be out on licence after one year. I knew he wouldn’t get life but she’ll have this for the rest of her life.”
At St Albans Crown Court last Friday, Judge John Bevan QC told Huckerby: “You are a ladies’ man but have had a succession of unsatisfactory relationships. It is an indication of your sexual instability. The facts in this case are as depressing as they are serious.”
Huckerby, who has a son, was also made the subject of an order restricting his contact with children and will have to register as a sex offender indefinitely.
The 29-year-old mother, who is married and living away from Bishop’s Stortford with her daughter, said she had decided to speak out “in the interests of public safety”.
She spoke of the trauma her family have undergone since her daughter revealed in June last year what Huckerby had done to her, but the shock of what the little girl told her mummy is still raw.
The girl had inappropriately touched a young boy at a childminder’s and her mother was talking to her about why she had done that. “She said, ‘He makes me do things’. You don’t expect that to come out of the mouth of a seven-year-old, you just don’t.
