In 2019, the Offender Database reported that Stephen Hicks, then 57, of Harborne, Birmingham, was sentenced at Warwick Crown Court. Hicks was jailed for a series of historic sexual assaults against a young girl dating back to the late 1970s, crimes he committed while being aided by the victim’s own father.
The court heard that Stephen Hicks targeted the victim when she was just eight or nine years old. Although he pleaded guilty to indecent assault in 1979 and was given three years’ probation, he continued to abuse the child even after being ordered by a court to stay away. The victim revealed that her “twisted” father deliberately allowed Hicks access to their home, ensuring there was “no level of protection” for the child. The abuse occurred in various locations, including her home, the top deck of a bus, and a multi-storey car park.
The scale of the “horrific” abuse only came to light in 2016 when the victim, now an adult, finally found the courage to report the trauma to the police. She described how Hicks had forced her to perform sex acts on him when she was only ten years old. Hicks initially denied the charges, only entering a guilty plea for indecent assault and indecency with a child on the morning his trial was set to begin.
Judge Anthony Potter sentenced Stephen Hicks to three years in prison. He noted that while the current maximum sentence for such crimes is 14 years, the law at the time of the offences (the 1956 Sexual Offences Act) capped the penalty at five years. The judge expressed shock that Hicks had “transferred his attention” to another child under 14 following these offences, for which he was previously jailed for 15 months in 1985.
In addition to his custodial sentence, Stephen Hicks was ordered to register as a sex offender for life. The judge highlighted the predatory nature of Hicks’ behaviour, noting that he had operated with the knowledge that the victim’s father would not interfere, leaving the child feeling that reporting the abuse would be “pointless.”
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