Man convicted of sexually abusing girl when he was 13

Graham Crowther, 29, was found guilty last Wednesday of at least four indecent assaults which took place 15 years ago — he was cleared of one count of rape.

The victim, from Salisbury, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had originally told her parents of the attacks but they were not reported to the police.

She eventually raised her concerns after seeing Crowther’s mother at a funeral in 2014 and the accusations resurfaced.

It comes after Crowther was jailed for nine months for possessing indecent images of children on his phone two years ago.

Crowther was aged 13 when the first assault happened in Bournemouth.

The victim described how she would wake up to find his hands down her pyjamas but was too young at the time to fully understand what was happening.

On another occasion, the girl had fallen asleep on the sofa when Crowther was accused of raping her, a charge of which he was acquitted.

She claimed to wake to find him naked from the waist down wearing only a Manchester United football shirt.

The victim said she then asked Crowther what he was doing.

“I’m not doing anything,” she said he replied. 

“He went and sat in his room as if nothing had happened,” she added.

Eventually she told her mother what had been going on.

Her father confronted Crowther but it was not reported to the police until the victim made the complaint last summer.

Crowther, of Suffolk Road, Bournemouth, accused the victim of making up the attacks and said he had been “caught in the crossfire like a deer in the headlights”.

He said he did not even see the victim at the flat.

However, Crowther admitted to owning a Manchester United top but said that the victim might have spotted him wearing it on a trip to Amesbury.

The jury of seven women and five men took a little over an hour to find him guilty of four counts of indecent assault.

The case was adjourned until June 8 for sentencing and Judge Richard Parkes told Crowther to expect a prison sentence.