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29
Sept 2022
Knaresborough paedophile jailed for three years
A serial sex offender has been jailed for over three years for sexually assaulting an infant girl after “luring” her into an enclosed space.
Kenneth Stephen Fowler, 64, a drifter and heavily convicted paedophile from Knaresborough, assaulted and then performed a lewd act in front of the youngster, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Richard Herrmann said that Fowler had over 100 previous criminal convictions, of which 18 were child-sex offences.
Fowler’s last such conviction was almost 30 years ago, but on August 6 this year, when heavily drunk, he lured the young girl into a public enclosed space, put his arms around her and began touching her “excessively”.
He then tried to remove her clothing before taking off his own clothes to reveal an intimate part of his body. He then performed a lewd act in front of her.
Mr Herrmann said:
She then moved “very quickly” away from the enclosed area, after which an adult witness saw Fowler buckling up his trousers.
Fowler told the witness, in an “aggressive manner”, that he was “about to set fire to the place”.
Matters were ultimately reported to police who searched Fowler’s flat in Knaresborough and found among his clothes a pair of girl’s knickers.
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Homeless drifter
Fowler, a homeless drifter, was arrested and charged with indecent exposure, sexual assault of a child under 13 and sexual activity in the presence of a child.
He initially denied the offences but ultimately admitted the latter two charges. The Crown ultimately quashed the exposure charge.
He appeared for sentence via video link today after being remanded in custody.
Mr Herrmann said Fowler’s wicked behaviour had caused “great distress” to the girl and her family.
The girl’s mother said her daughter had since had nightmares about Fowler and her horrifying experience:
Fowler, originally from Scotland, had 104 previous convictions for 223 offences dating back over 50 years. Eighteen of those were sexual offences, including many for indecently exposing himself in front of children.
In the 1980s, he was jailed on multiple occasions for indecent exposure with intent to sexually assault a female, and another offence of unlawful intercourse with an under-age girl. In one incident in 1988, he exposed himself to a 13-year-old girl and performed a lewd act in front of two young boys.
His last exposure offence was in 1994 but he continued to regularly appear before the courts for offences such as shoplifting and being drunk and disorderly.
Set Harrogate charity store on fire
In October 2019, he received a 16-month jail sentence at York Crown Court for arson and damaging property.
That offence, described as a “revenge” attack, occurred in August 2018 when he torched a charity clothes store for the homeless at the Wesley Centre in Harrogate run by Harrogate Homeless Project, which had helped him get back on his feet after years of living rough.
Fowler, who was again drunk and had some kind of “grudge” against the charity, also smashed a window with a hammer, causing nearly £1,500 damage.
The charity relied completely on donations such as clothes and the damage had resulted in severe disruption to the organisation.
Defence barrister Brian Russell said that after a 30-year gap in his sexual offending, Fowler had “for an inexplicable reason…suddenly reverted to entrenched behaviour which he had managed to avoid for almost (three decades)”.
'Unhealthy interest in young girls'
Judge Simon Hickey told Fowler:
He said the child was clearly “in very great distress” and told Fowler:
The judge said Fowler clearly had an “unhealthy interest in young girls”.
Fowler was jailed for three years and four months. He was told he must serve two-thirds of that sentence behind bars and would only be released when the Parole Board deemed it safe to do so.
Due to the judge’s finding of dangerousness, Fowler was told he would have to serve an extended three years on prison licence once he was released from jail, for the protection of young girls.
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