September 2000
Officers defend paedophile decision
JAILED pervert Percival Threadgill was given a police caution for an indecent assault last year, because police believed nothing would be gained by putting him before the courts.
But when he re-offended, just over a year later, he wasn t given a second chance and ended up being jailed for six months on the day of his 89th birthday.
However, police today denied the decision to give the pensioner a caution was a mistake, and said it had been totally vindicated by the sentence handed out at Peterborough Crown Court.
They said if they had not taken the decision to caution Threadgill last year, then he might not have received a prison sentence this time around.
As reported in The Evening Telegraph yesterday, Threadgill, of Blossom Court, Norburn, Bretton, Peterborough, pleaded guilty to two charges of indecent assault relating to attacks on a six and a seven-year-old girl.
The court heard he had a history of indecent assaults stretching back to 1980.
Detective Chief Inspector Dick Harrison said today: I feel totally vindicated by the decision we made last year.
The likelihood of him receiving a prison sentence then was virtually zero.
We had to make a decision on the facts of the case as they were reported to us.
I am not trying to minimise what happened then, but it was inappropriate behaviour, rather than a more gross type of behaviour.
DCI Harrison added: The fact that he was cautioned last time has no doubt had the effect that he received a prison sentence this time.
He added that if Threadgill had gone before the courts last year, he would not have received a prison sentence and would still have been free.
DCI Harrison said: Both of these incidents taken in isolation would probably not warrant a custodial sentence.
A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which handled the prosecution of Threadgill, said: The decision to caution him last year was not made by the CPS it was entirely a police matter.
‘He was a sad old man’Percival Threadgill indecently assaulted an eight-year-old girl in Bretton, Peterborough, in May 1999.
He was cautioned after it was decided that it would not be in the public interest to charge him, because of his age and the age of his victim.
Instead, he was summoned to a police station and issued with a caution about his behaviour and his future conduct.
At the time, Detective Chief Inspector Dick Harrison told The Evening Telegraph that Threadgill was a “sad old man”.
He added: “Nothing at all would be achieved by putting the case before a court.”
