A REMORSELESS Gulf War veteran who sexually abused a girl while in his teens has been jailed for three-and-a-half years. 

Babysitter Antony Williams, now 37, molested the girl while he read bedtime stories to his victim’s younger sister – and also got her to touch him. 

Despite being found guilty by jurors at Swindon Crown Court last year of two counts of indecent assault, Judge Peter Crabtree was told on Wednesday that the Penhill man still did not accept his guilt.

Asking the judge to consider imposing a suspended sentence, Don Tait, for Williams, said: “We cannot, of course, go behind the jury’s verdicts but he is adamant as so often happens in such cases that he has been wrongly convicted. 

“He understands today he has to face the consequences of what he did as a schoolboy when he was 15 or 16 years of age.”  

Jailing him for three years and six months, Judge Crabtree told Williams his crimes had had a serious and enduring impact on his victim. “She spoke of freezing when you abused her and, not surprisingly at her age, of not knowing what to do. You also told her that she should say nothing about what you were doing and it was your secret.” 

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Antony Williams Picture: WILTSHIRE POLICE

Abuse

Williams was in his mid-teens when he carried out the abuse in the late 1990s.

The assaults all took place while he was babysitting his victim. Although he also looked after the girl’s younger sister, there was no suggestion he had assaulted her.

He touched the older girl’s private parts as she lay on her bed. His victim also said he got her to touch him sexually, including while he read bedtime stories to her younger sister.

Interviewed by police in 2018, the victim said: “I just thought it was normal. I didn’t think anything of it.” She spoke of freezing when Williams carried out his assaults.

The girl told her mum about what had happened, prompting the woman to confront Williams. He denied sexually assaulting the girl, suggesting the mum take her to a doctor to show she had not been assaulted.

Williams, of Ramsbury Avenue, Penhill, denied carrying out the abuse and claimed he was younger – aged 11 or 12 – when he babysat his victim.

In mitigation, it was said Williams was a man of previous good character and had served during the second Gulf War. He had a number of mental health issues and had experienced what the judge called “traumatic events” in his childhood and as an adult.

Mr Tait said: “I would ask on his behalf, knowing everything your honour knows about him and the passage of time that sentencing him to immediate custody today after 20 odd years of blameless existence would serve no purpose whatsoever.”

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Antony Williams outside Swindon Crown Court Picture: ADVER PHOTOGRAPHER

The barrister described his client as a fragile individual. “He has thought processes that are not the sort of thought processes that a lot of people have. I hope he won’t mind me saying so, he has a stream of consciousness that comes out of him when you ask him straight forward questions. He was adamant there was evidence that would have proved he was underage.”

Judge Crabtree imposed a life-long sexual harm prevention order. Williams must register as a sex offender for life. 

He also admitted a charge of failing to surrender, resulting from his no-show at Swindon Crown Court for a hearing last year.