‘She’s now a shell of a child she used to be, and it’s devastating’
A former security guard unmasked as a sexual predator kept his ‘perverted, disgusting fantasies’ secret for ‘many, many years’, a judge who jailed him said.
Colin Walker, 68, subjected four young girls to a catalogue of sickening abuse over more than two decades. Even after his vile crimes finally came to light, the recently retired ex-dock worker sought to lie his way out of trouble, the judge added.
But Walker is now behind bars after the ‘bravery, courage and fortitude’ of his victims in coming forward painted a ‘compelling picture’ and ensured justice was done, a court heard.
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A trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard Walker, of Church Road in Tranmere, Wirral, targeted the four complainants when they were aged as young as five.
Paul Becker, prosecuting, read a series of statements to the court on behalf of Walker’s victims on Monday. The mother of one of the children said: “She is still very young and doesn’t totally understand everything that’s happened. She was a confident, bubbly girl that wasn’t afraid of anything.
“I’ve noticed some changes in her. She wet the bed most nights. She had bad recurring dreams about him. She constantly apologises and blames herself, saying she was naughty and she is sorry.”
Another of the girls’ mums detailed how Walker’s crimes had an ‘unfortunate and devastating impact on their lives’, adding of the moment she learned the pensioner had targeted her daughter: “Our lives changed forever in one split second. I had to watch my happy little girl change in front of my eyes. She’s now afraid to see her friends and play.
“She’s now a shell of a child she used to be, and it’s devastating. I’ve had to see my daughter break down in tears on regular occasion. She’s not been coping at all. The trauma he made her suffer will never fully leave her. I feel like I completely failed as a mother. I had one job, to keep her safe and happy. He snatched that away from us.”
A third complainant, meanwhile, said in her account: “This event will stay with me and my family for the rest of our lives. How can they be after the damage he’s caused?”
Walker has no previous convictions, reports The Echo.
John Rowan, defending him, told the court his sentence would ‘be difficult for him given his age’. Walker was said to have COPD and a heart complaint. “He was previously man of good character at 68 years of age, a man who, for many years, had held down employment, only leaving his employment two years ago having retired, spending the vast majority of his working life as a security guard and before that as dock man and warehouse manager,” Mr Rowan said.
Walker admitted two counts of sexual assault of a child aged under 13 and causing a child to engage in sexual activity. He was found guilty by a jury of a further 12 charges of sexual assault of a child under 13, four of assault by penetration and two of indecent assault.
Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool, he was jailed for 10 years and handed an additional year on licence.
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Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland KC, said the evidence heard was compelling. “The little girls who were giving evidence against you were telling the truth to the jury,” he said. “The evidence made a compelling picture, that you, for many, many years, secretly had been living out your perverted, disgusting sexual fantasies by interfering with the girls. You did so secretly, and you did so with apparent impunity.
“You thought that, perhaps, it was your right or that they would never be believed or you thought you were just entitled to do it. You were not. These children, these women, are entitled to live their lives free from sexual interference from you or anybody else.”
The judge said he found Walker ‘told many, many lies’ in evidence and called his offences ‘terrible’. “I commend the courage and fortitude which each complainant has shown in coming forward and telling the truth,” he added.
Walker will serve two thirds of his sentence. He was also handed a lifelong sexual harm prevention order, indefinite restraining orders and must also sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
