A lawyer believes there may be further victims of a paedophile truck driver who led a ‘double life’ in the 1970s and 1980s to carry out sex attacks on young victims he came into contact with.
Robert Bailey, of Portsmouth, denied ever abusing a single child during his trial at Crown Court, but following extensive evidence from his victims, a jury dismissed his denials and found him guilty of sexual attacks on five young girls.
He was sentenced to 23 years in jail for five indecent assaults, two rapes and three counts of indecency with a child.
Some of his victims have now instructed Hudgell Solicitors to pursue civil cases for compensation through the Government’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) scheme.
And specialist Paul Cain, who is acting on their behalf following this conviction, feels there is a real possibility more victims could now come forward.
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The trial heard how offender threatened young victims of abuse
Bailey, 73, of Belmore Close, Fratton, threatened his victims to prevent them from telling anyone of the offences he was committing, conducting a ‘sustained campaign’ against one girl, whom he started abusing when she was just around four years old, Portsmouth Crown Court was told.
The criminal injury trial heard how he abused one girl as young as two and indecently assaulted a girl aged between four and six by rubbing his hands ‘all over her’.
Another victim, aged between two and seven, was shown pornographic material by Bailey before he abused her.
He offered another victim, a young girl who he picked up in his lorry, cash to touch him but she fled, leading to one conviction of indecency with a child.
Many factors suggest there may have been more victims of Robert Bailey
Paul Cain, of Hudgell Solicitors, is now representing victims who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Bailey.
She described his offending as ‘both premeditated and opportunistic’, and says given the extremely young age of victims, combined with his job enabling him to travel to different areas, more victims may yet come forward. Mr Cain said:
There are many factors in this case which appear to make it a distinct possibility that there may have been more victims of Bailey.
This is something my clients have specifically raised with me, particularly following his conviction of indecency with one child whom he picked up in his lorry. There seemed to be both premeditated campaigns of abuse, but also the opportunistic nature to his offending in picking up a girl when driving.
It is also clear that he targeted very young girls, girls who were so young that they may not have realised they were victims at the time.
Our clients have each kept this abuse to themselves for many years, and had actually been threatened by him should they speak out.
Now that he has finally been jailed for these despicable acts, we hope that should there be any others who have suffered at his hands, they will now feel able to come forward, as did those victims so bravely who brought him to justice at trial.
During the criminal trial and sentencing, one victim, who was aged four when the abuse started, said ‘Every part of my life has been affected, every day, because of what this monster has done to me as a child.’
