Jail likely for sex assaults

Melvyn Peter Clement, 63, of Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, had earlier denied the assaults.

The offences were committed between December 1976 and December 1978, when the victim, now aged 36, was about nine years old.

Earlier in the trial, the woman - who cannot be named for legal reasons - told how she only reported the attacks last October, after seeing Clement with another young girl.

Richard Bennett, prosecuting, told Durham Crown Court that the abuse began with inappropriate comments.

Clement, a member of a Scottish pipe band and a former member of the Territorial Army, told his victim how pretty she looked and what nice legs she had.

The first offence took place when he lured her into the box room.

The second happened when she awoke to find Clement in her bedroom. He stopped touching her after hearing people coming upstairs, and left.

He had told the girl it was "their little secret" and warned her no one would believe her.

She said the assaults only stopped when she was 13 and warned Clement she would tell on him if he did not leave her alone.

In evidence, Clement claimed the girl had come on to him when she was 16.

He said the only improper contact between them happened while he and his wife, Margaret, had been going through a bad spell in their marriage.

The couple were sleeping in separate rooms and he alleged his victim had been lying on his bed in her nightdress and teasing him, but he had done nothing about it.

The jury took less than three hours to return unanimous verdicts of guilty on both counts of indecent assault.

The court heard thatClement, who had pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting another girl at an earlier hearing, was in the care of a psychiatric nurse and there were concerns he could be a danger either to himself or others.

Judge Richard Lowden warned Clement that he was facing a jail term. He was remanded in custody, to be sentenced later this year.