Pensioner jailed for sex assault on young boy

Alan Tetsill, in Cosham, was found guilty of two charges of buggery and indecent assault following a trial at Portsmouth Crown Court.

At his sentencing, prosecutor Sarah Jones said the incident happened in the late 1970s at the boy’s home.

She said following the assault, which only happened once, Tetsill had tried to stop the boy from reporting what had happened to him by giving him money and treats.

The victim, who cannot be named and was under 13, came forward to police a couple of years ago.

In Tetsill’s defence, barrister David Reid said his client had no previous convictions and ‘there has been no sign of any similar behaviour before or since’.

He also argued there was no risk of him reoffending.

He added that ‘his character reference shows a man whom people see highly’ and showed ‘how much his family think of him’.

In a statement the victim said: ‘I have spent my life trying to forget what happened.’

He described how he had started to smoke and drink regularly in later years.

He also said he had to tell his children about the case which he described as ‘serious and stressful’.

At the sentencing the court heard the victim suffered a heart attack about two weeks before the start of the trial.

But Mr Reid argued there was no evidence of a link between the heart attack and the anxiety caused by reliving the assault in court.

In sentencing, recorder Anne Arnold told Tetsill: ‘You have able to live your life since the offence’ but the victim’s had been ‘blighted’ by what happened.

As well as nine years imprisonment Tetsill will be banned from working with children and will be put on the sex offender’s register.

Speaking after the sentencing, investigating officer Det Con Emma Roberts said: ‘The victim has been very brave in coming forward after all this 
time, and hopefully this will allow him to move with his life.’