By Grâçia Ada Obi
A man asked a schoolgirl on a bus to perform a sex act on him then went on to sexually assault a girl as she walked her dog in a park, a court has heard. The two incidents – involving a 15-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl – happened within days of each other and have had profound impacts on the lives of the victims.
Police have praised the courage of the girls in coming forward, saying everyone has the right to feel safe when going about their everyday business.
Newport Crown Court heard the first incident happened on a bus in Barry in October last year. The defendant engaged a 15-year-old girl in conversation about Facebook before asking if he could sit next to her – the girl, who was wearing a school uniform – said “no” to the request but Dale sat next to her anyway.
The court heard the defendant began moving closer and closer to the teenager, who ended up squeezed against the bus window as she tried to get away from him. Dale then showed the girl a message on his phone which read: “£20 to j*rk me off under my coat. Don’t tell anyone.”
The girl got up from her seat and told the driver about what had happened, and the driver threw Dale off the bus. The police were notified.
The court heard that two days later Dale approached an 11-year-old girl who was walking her dog in a Cardiff park and asked her for directions to the local Co-op. The 31-year-old defendant then kissed the child and pushed her to the ground. The girl was able to get up and run away and she immediately contacted her father and told him what had happened.
Dale was subsequently identified from bus CCTV using retrospective facial recognition technology and arrested.
In a statement written by the 15-year-old victim which was read to the court, the girl said it terrified her how quickly the situation on the bus had developed, and she said she had been left feeling vulnerable around men in public. She described Dale’s actions as “disgusting” and said he seemed to get some kind of satisfaction from seeing how distressed she was. The girl added that she now saw the world differently and realised some people had “bad intentions”.
In her statement, the mum of the 11-year-old girl said before the attack her daughter had started developing self-confidence as she approached her teenage years but that had now changed and she had become anxious and withdrawn. She said her daughter’s behaviour at school had deteriorated, and that, psychologically, she had become “angry”. The mother said the incident had had a massive impact on the whole family, and she said she was “overwhelmed by guilt that I could not protect her as a parent should”.
Alexander Dale, of North Luton Place, Adamsdown, Cardiff, United Kingdom (UK) had previously pleaded guilty to inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and sexual assault of a girl under 13 when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
Paul Hewitt, for Dale, said the defendant had mental health issues which required medication, and he noted his client had reported hearing “voices in his mind” during the 10 months he had been held on remand in prison.
With discounts for his guilty pleas, Judge Carl Harrison sentenced the defendant to 23 months in prison comprising 16 months for the bus offence and seven months for the park offence to run consecutively. He will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The defendant was also made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.
Speaking after the sentence, South Wales Police detective constable Emma Partridge said: “Both victims have been incredibly brave to share what happened to them and support the investigation. Dale’s actions continue to have a huge impact on their day to day lives including feeling vulnerable on public transport and walking alone.
“I hope today’s sentencing brings the girls some comfort and allows them to regain their confidence to move forward. Everyone has the right to feel safe, wherever they are, and South Wales Police does everything possible to keep communities safe and ensure people feel safe when going about their everyday business.
“Stranger incidents like that are very unusual, but when they do happen, we use all available technology and traditional policing methods to bring offenders to justice.”