Man abused girl at Kenilworth swimming pools

Andrew Settle pleaded guilty to a total of ten offences of indecently assaulting the girl when he appeared at Warwick Crown Court.

Settle, 44, of Bascote Heath near Southam was jailed for three years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

He denied another three offences which were allowed to lie on the court file.

The offences took place when Settle was aged around 20 and met the 14-year-old girl and her friend while swimming at the town pools

Prosecutor Simon Phillips said Settle was at first interested in the girl’s friend, but later turned his attention to the victim,

He would touch her, as if accidentally, in the water as they were swimming. He then began offering her lifts home, and further indecent assaults took place, including him kissing her and touching her under her clothes.

Phillips said the girl, who to a degree enjoyed the attention but had not wanted things to go that far, wrote about the abuse in her diary.

She first reported the abuse to police last year after keeping quiet for over two decades.

The court heard that Settle always believed what was taking place was with the girl’s consent.

Jailing Settle, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him that he was seven years older than he girl than at the time.

She told him the law had to protect under-age girls from older men, and that there was no alternative to an immediate prison sentence.

He was given credit for his early guilty pleas.