Grandfather who sexually abused boys 30 years ago jailed after three victims reported his crimes
A married grandfather who had a secret past as a child abuser 30 years ago has been jailed for more than five years after three of his victims reported his crimes.
Frank Burton, now 57, pleaded guilty to abusing three boys, aged nine or ten, in the late 1980s in Wolverhampton.
One of his victims bravely reported the crime to the police in 2021 and after further investigations detectives discovered more victims. Burton pleaded guilty on the first day of a trial which would have seen his victims give evidence.
Now a father himself, one of the victims stood in Stafford Crown Court and read out his victim impact statement before Burton, of Oak Avenue, Great Wyrley, was sentenced.
He said: "This process has turned my life upside down, I kept on imagining having to come face to face with Frank after all these years. If he had pleaded guilty earlier I and the other victims would have been saved the ordeal. My family noticed my severe mood swings and I had to have a very difficult conversation with my children explaining I was a victim of sexual abuse. This is not something I ever wanted to do.
"This happened to me when I was nine years old and affected the way I look back at my entire childhood. I could not tell anyone about it. I carried it with me for all this time. I even moved away from Wolverhampton. I never wanted to bump into him."
Burton abused the boys, who were either nine or ten, when he was 19 until he was 23 in the late 1980s.
When initially confronted with the accusations, Burton denied them to detectives and said the victims "were after money". His lack of remorse and contrition continued throughout the process, with similar remarks being included in the pre-sentence report which annoyed the judge.
Unable to read or write, Burton worked for 25 years as a tyre fitter and did not have a criminal record before these proceedings. His wife of over 25 years was in the public gallery offering support.
Judge Fowler told Burton: "These crimes were committed as a young man, and you went on to have a productive life, you have grown up children and grandchildren. But you have known you had this skeleton in your closet. In this time your victims have had to live with the damage you have done, and the pain of an unresolved wrong. Their statements make clear the painful, persistent and pervasive harm that these offences they suffered at a young age have caused them.
"They have struggled throughout their lives with the feelings of lack of control and being preyed upon as young boys, not being able to talk about it and were haunted and misguided belief they were somehow complicit."
"The crimes you are being sentenced for were carried out when you were a young man, but were spread out over a number of years involving three boys."
Due to the historic nature of the offences, which took place in the 1980s, Burton had to be sentenced under the now repealed Sexual Offences Act of 1956, which meant the maximum sentence for each count was ten years - if they had happened after the Sexual Offences Act 2003 came into being it would have been 14 years.
"I give you 10 per cent credit for pleading guilty before trial, but I give you no credit for remorse due to the impression you gave when entering your plea and the remarks about the reason why these accusations were made in the pre-sentence report.
"I am sentencing you to five years and ten months in prison for each of the three counts, these sentences will run consecutively. You will be placed on the sexual offenders registers for life and you will be barred from working with children."