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More on KentOnline
A retired head teacher who almost 13 years ago went to jail for molesting young girls has now admitted abusing another victim.
Nigel Weekes was sentenced to three years in October 2002 after admitting playing lurid games with seven girls, four of whom were pupils at his primary school - St Mary's in Ashford.
Now, the 75-year-old has confessed to abusing another girl while he was head of a primary school in Northfleet almost 40 years ago.
Weekes, of Laurel Avenue, St Mary’s Bay, Romney Marsh, walked free with a sentence of 18 months imprisonment suspended for two years with supervision.
It was after a judge heard he was suffering from dementia and had various other health problems.
Maidstone Crown Court heard the eight-year-old victim was extremely vulnerable.
“You seized the opportunity to take her under your wing, and while in a position of considerable trust and responsibility, slowly but surely you groomed her to perform sex acts upon you for your personal gratification,” Judge Philip Statman told Weekes.
"While in a position of considerable trust and responsibility, slowly but surely you groomed her to perform sex acts upon you" - Judge Philip Statman
“At that stage in her life she had absolutely no idea as to what she was being asked to do to you, or, of course, that it was wrong.”
Sex acts took place during game playing while his private parts were “tied in some way to a candle”.
Jennifer Dempster, defending, said Weekes had served a “significant” sentence and not offended since.
His wife sat in the public gallery as Miss Dempster said: “She couldn’t be more loyal.”
She added: “I am in a position to say he is a rehabilitated man. He has possible alzheimer’s, type one diabetes, no vision in his left eye, vertigo and hypertension.
“I am in the odd position of saying give him a suspended sentence and don’t send him back in with active sex offenders.”
Judge Statman said: “These cases are terribly sensitive. The public as a whole have grave concerns about sex offending within the community and judges have to be sensitive to the needs of victims, because her life has changed as a result of what happened to her.”
He told Weekes: “The events have haunted your victim for over 38 years, causing her great distress. Her childhood was ruined as a result of what you did to her.”
Weekes, who admitted two specimen offences of indecency with a child, will be under supervision for two years.
A sexual harm prevention order was imposed for five years and his name remains on the sex offenders’ register.
Judge Statman said the victim had found it difficult to trust in relationships and had sought counselling.
“Thirty-eight years later justice has caught up with you,” he continued. “The age of these offences become irrelevant, it seems to me, because she has had to live with what you have done to her over the passage of time.”
But sentencing was difficult because of the juxtaposition of dates in both sets of offences and Weekes’s poor health.
The maximum sentence for the latest offence was two years imprisonment at the relevant time.
“It would be wrong now, 10 years after your release and subsequent to the commission of these offences, to send you, in poor health, back to prison,” said Judge Statman.
“If you had been before me to be sentenced in different circumstances you would have gone to prison for a long time.”
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