Paedophile who touched 12-year-old girl given suspended sentence

John Christopher Condron, from Huntington, was given an 18-month suspended sentence for touching the victim at a property in the Cannock area on August 31, 2019.

The victim, who had been asked into a bedroom for a private chat, had "backed away and said no" after being touched, Stafford Crown Court was told.

Condron, aged 52, denied the account to police and then to jurors in a trial and said he had used his hands "a lot in conversing" with people.

However he was found guilty of sexually touching a girl aged under 13.

The court heard the defendant claimed to have had "pointed" rather than touched the girl.

A victim impact statement from the victim's mother, read out in court by prosecutor Mr Ben Close, said the incident had changed her daughter's personality "considerably".

The girl had suffered from bullying at school due to the incident and had "isolated" herself from people, struggled with friendships and become uncomfortable around men.

The victim had undertaken counselling but was still "struggling to go out anywhere" according to the statement from February this year, Mr Close told the court.

The court heard the defendant had two previous convictions for dissimilar offences, with one in 1996 and the other in 2002, had been of "good character" and was a person who had "always demonstrated a capacity for hard work".

Condron, 52 and from Gratley Croft in Huntington, was sentenced to 18 months in custody which was suspended for two years. He was subject to 55 rehabilitation days and 200 hours of paid work. He was also subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

Judge Graeme Smith, sentencing, said he had considered reports which found the defendant to pose a "medium risk of causing serious harm to children" but this was not imminent, and said it was unlikely he would have received the "full benefit" of rehabilitation in prison.

But he added: "Both in your police account and to the jury, it was clear you were a person who did use your hands a lot in conversing – but it's clear this went well beyond that and anything that was acceptable."