A 30-year-old man has been jailed for raping and sexually assaulting two girls when he was in his early teens.
Samuel Phillips sexually abused the two girls separately at his home in Worthing over five years, Lewes Crown Court was told today (Wednesday 21 August).
Dale Sullivan, prosecuting, told the court that the offences, more than a dozen of them, occurred between dates in 2005 and 2010 and involved two girls who were younger than Phillips.
Beverley Cherrill, defending, said that Phillips had himself been sexually abused as a child and had since suffered psychiatric problems.
Judge Mark Van Der Zwart said that Phillips’s own experience of being abused put his offending in context but did not excuse it.
The judge that the psychological harm suffered by both defendants had been severe and affected them every day.
He said: “While they have been continuing to live with the impact of what you did to them, you have been getting on with your life.”
But sentencing guidelines and case law meant that the judge was required to take into account that Phillips was a child when he abused the girls and that it was a long time ago.
As a result, he was given a shorter prison sentence than he might otherwise have received.
Phillips had stayed out of trouble as an adult and, although he lied when the offences were previously investigated, more recently he had acknowledged what he had done including by pleading guilty.
One of the girls had “recorded you confessing what you had done to her”, the judge said, adding that Phillips had then called the police himself and told them what he had done.
Phillips, of Middle Marsh Road, Holbeach St Marks, Spalding, was jailed for two years in total for two counts of rape, six counts of sexual assault and further five counts of inciting a child to take part in sexual activity.
The judge imposed a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and a restraining order for the same period, warning him not even to use social media to communicate with the victims.
