A GIRL who suffered ‘devastating’ sexual abuse by a Rugby man when she was 12 was ‘regarded with scepticism’ by the police and Social Services when she tried to report him.
When she complained in a letter to a social worker that she had been abused by Alan Phillips, the authorities concluded she was not telling the truth.
It was only some time later that her complaint was taken seriously and he was finally arrested and charged, a jury at Warwick Crown Court has heard.
Phillips was jailed for 14 years after he was found guilty of two charges of sexually assaulting that girl and two of sexually assaulting a second girl.
And because the judge found him to be ‘an offender of particular concern,’ he will only be freed after serving half his sentence if the Parole Board considers it safe to do so.
Phillips, 51, of the Lodge Farm caravan site in Bilton Lane, Rugby, will be released on licence at some point between then and serving the whole of the sentence, and will then be on licence for a further year on top of that.
During the trial prosecutor Stefan Kolodynski told the jury: “The broad overview is that two people were sexually abused when they were young girls by Alan Phillips.”
One of the girls had told a social worker she wanted to say something but could not talk about it out loud, so would write it in a letter, which she did.
“That triggered an investigation, but the letter was regarded with scepticism by the police and Social Services.
“Alan Phillips was spoken to and denied any wrong-doing, and they concluded she was not telling the truth.
“When she was later spoken to by the police about the letter she effectively clammed up, so the investigation ended there,” said Mr Kolodynski.
But in 2014 she found the courage to open up to the police and told them what had happened when she was around 12.
She said Phillips sat next to her and put his hand inside her leggings.
The girl also disclosed he had sexually abused her in a similar way when she was older, and that he had threatened her not to tell anyone.
This time the police took her seriously, and as a result of speaking to other children who had come into contact with Phillips, another girl revealed two incidents when he had also sexually abused her.
On one occasion when she was around ten, he had put his hand up her top, which Mr Kolodynski said was him ‘testing the water.’
Then when she was 14 he had sat next to her and put his hand on her upper thigh, keeping it there until she moved away from him.
Phillips denied the offences, claiming the first girl had been encouraged by others to make up allegations against him, and that the other girl’s accusations were also false.
The court heard that shortly before his trial Phillips had been remanded in custody for witness intimidation, which he admitted, after he had contacted one of his victims.
His barrister Peter Cooper said: “He has borne deep personal sadness during this trial. Having been arrested and remanded in custody, his mother died, and he was not allowed to attend her funeral.”
And he said the offences had taken place ‘at a time when there was stress in the lives of him and his partner.’
Jailing Phillips, and ordering him to register as a sex offender for life, Judge Hancox told him: “The jury found you guilty of four of the six counts you faced.
“You are a man who waited carefully for the opportunities to arise, and when they did, whatever risks there were of being seen, you acted in the way you did to satisfy your desires.
“The impact of your offending on both of them has been devastating,” said the judge, who observed that one of the girls had earlier been abused by another man.
