Sex abuser from Fareham sees his jail term doubled after government's top lawyer intervenes

Fifty-seven-old Mark Benfield, of Hill Road, will now serve eight years and six months in jail, rather than the four years to which he was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court in October. The new sentence includes one year on licence.

The Court of Appeal made the decision after having the case referred by the Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC MP, as Mr Buckland felt it was unduly lenient.

The abuse started after the victim’s sixth birthday, when Benfield was 18, and didn’t stop until 1984, six years later.

During this period, the victim was sexually assaulted in her foster home a number of times by the offender.

Speaking after the hearing, the Solicitor General said: ‘This is a tragic case where the victim was made to feel unsafe in their own home, blighting many precious years of childhood.

‘I welcome the court’s decision and hope that the increased sentence brings some comfort and long awaited closure to the victim.’

The News reported in the autumn that Benfield’s victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, says she feels she has ‘never felt like a woman’ and that she sees herself in a ‘little girl’s body’.

Benfield was found guilty of nine charges of indecent assault and three of indecency with a child at a trial.

He was acquitted of charges relating to three other women.

In court the victim said: ‘This is how I have been affected by the sexual abuse I suffered at the hands of Mark Benfield.

‘I have had flashbacks, these have led to panic attacks.’

She added: ‘I feel dirty, I wash a lot... I cry myself to sleep.’

She said at night she fears someone coming into her bedroom and has ‘no confidence in myself’.

She added: ‘I’ve never felt like a woman. I also felt my body was a little girl’s body.’

She watched as Benfield was jailed.

Judge Stephen Climie told him that the jail term would have been in double figures had the crime been committed now.

He said Benfield had lived his life without his family knowing of the abuse, adding: ‘There was a sinister background to which (his wife) was never to know about.’

Judge Climie said it was only Benfield’s age at the time, his immaturity then and his good character now that made the jail terms on the 12 counts concurrent not consecutive.

In October his lawyer said he had ‘changed unrecognisably’.