The Offender Database has reported that Philip Hall, the Ballymena Paedophile and Child Molester, a man from County Antrim, who was a teenager when he sexually attacked a five-year-old girl shortly after her older brother had raped her, has received a 12-month probation order.
During the sentencing of Philip Hall at Antrim Crown Court on Friday, Judge Philip Gilpin underscored his obligation to adhere to the sentencing regulations applicable in the late 1980s.
The judge stated that under the legislation, as Philip Hall was 14 years old at the time of the offence, “the court lacks the authority to impose a custodial sentence.”
His alternatives were to impose a fine, a probation order, an absolute discharge, or a conditional discharge.
Judge Gilpin stated that, given the available options, the most suitable course of action was to impose a one-year probation order, since it was the only penalty that provided genuine supervision.
On the day of his scheduled trial last Monday, 51-year-old Philip Hall, from Meadowvale in Ballymena, pleaded guilty to one count of indecent assault against Sarah Potter, occurring on an unspecified date between 25 November 1988 and 26 November 1989.
Two further cases, one of rape and another of indecent assault, remained unresolved after Philip Hall acknowledged his culpability.
This marked Philip Hall’s second prosecution for the indecent attack of Sarah, the step-sister of his childhood acquaintance, Dennis Allen.
The victims have courageously relinquished their right to anonymity to facilitate the disclosure of the complete facts of the case.
In 2022, 50-year-old Dennis Allen was convicted at the conclusion of a trial for perpetrating a series of sexual abuses against his step-sister and step-brother.
Initially, Allen received a 14-year sentence for his crimes, including the rape of his five-year-old step-sister, but this was subsequently reduced to 11 years by the Court of Appeal.
Philip Hall was previously convicted of rape; however, after serving 16 months in prison, the Court of Appeal annulled those convictions and mandated a retrial.
During the presentation of the case today (Friday), prosecution counsel Gavan Duffy informed the court that Sarah was merely five years old at the time of the occurrence.
She was asleep in bed when her older stepbrother, Allen, and his friend Philip Hall entered her bedroom.
Describing how it was the first of many incidents perpetrated by Allen, Mr Duffy told the court that while Sarah was being raped, Philip Hall stood watching at the end of the bed, “his hand inside his trousers.”
When Allen had finished, Philip Hall then touched the little girl inappropriately before the two teenage assailants left the room.
The senior barrister said this incident, “was the only incident the injured party remembers where Mr Philip Hall was involved,” but that clearly, Sarah was abused by her brother for many years after that.
After Sarah disclosed the abuse, Philip Hall was interviewed by police, and he claimed that he could “vaguely” remember Sarah but that whenever he had been at the victim’s house, “it was Dennis he was friendly with.”
Lodging a plea in mitigation, defence KC Neil Connor emphasised that Philip Hall’s involvement related to “one, isolated incident” when the defendant was 14 and that since then, “he has led a blameless life.”
Imposing the probation order, Judge Gilpin told Philip Hall his offending was aggravated because of the vulnerability of the victim, who had been assaulted in her own bed, “where she was entitled to feel safe.”
He told the court, while he did not wish to breach Sarah’s privacy by opening fully her Victim Impact Statement, “I do want to say some things that are in it,” including that Sarah reports “that her innocence was stolen from her.”
The judge revealed that Sarah “struggles with issues of trust” and developing relationships, the abuse has led to mental health issues, including PTSD and that the offending she was subjected to has impacted many aspects of her life.
In addition to the probation order, Philip Hall was also ordered to sign the police sex offenders register for five years. Although Mr Duffy had applied for a restraining order, Judge Gilpin declined to add that, stressing that no contact with Sarah was incorporated into the probation order.
As the court concluded, the media applied for the reporting restriction imposed by the Court of Appeal when a new trial was ordered to be lifted.
Judge Gilpin agreed, even though Mr Connor, the child rapist sympathiser, suggested that for the media to be interested in a sex case from 28 years ago, “it must be a slow news day.”
Speaking afterwards, Sarah said the senior barrister’s comment “is almost as though he is trying to silence victims.”
“I have to carry this with me for the whole of my life. Why should people not know who he is and what he has done?” Sarah asked rhetorically, “I think the public deserves to know what he did.”
“It has been a long battle to get to this point. It has been hanging over me for a very long time, but now it’s over, and everyone has heard Hall say the word ‘guilty.’ It’s an awful lot lighter now.
“It is complete vindication for me that I was telling the truth all along, and he is the liar who said it did not happen, so it’s the first step to allowing me to draw a line under it.”
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