Extradited Pensioner Convicted Of Sex Crimes From 1949

A pensioner – extradited from Australia – was convicted today of decades-old sex offences against four young girls when they were aged nine to sixteen years-old.

The crimes dated back to 1949 and 78 year-old ex-serviceman and miner Reginald Davies (pictured), who had emigrated down under, must have thought he had got away with it.

Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court heard Davies, now staying in Esbies Estate, Sawbridgeworth, was responsible for an “entrenched pattern of sustained sexual abuse.”

He denied, but was convicted of 13 of sixteen offences, against the girls in Abertridwr, Caerphilly, Wales.

Davies was extradited from Perth, where he had emigrated over twenty years ago.

The court heard he would lavish the girls with attention and "test the water" by asking them for a kiss, would touch their legs and then forced them into sexual acts.

Hanna Llewellyn-Waters, prosecuting, said: "The defendant nurtured a fear of disclosing the abuse in the complainants when they were children.

"He made them feel that they would not be believed, that they were to blame and, on occasion, he threatened that they would be removed from their parents if they were to report his abuse of them.

"As the complainants grew up, they tried to block the abuse from their minds in order to try to be able to continue with their lives."

He was arrested last July at his adopted home of Wanneroo on Australia's west coast.



The offences were investigated by specialist detectives from the Met’s Child Abuse Investigation team.



The jury heard Davies abused his victims while he was aged between 15 and 39.



He also told one of his victims she would be taken to a "naughty girl's home" if she spoke to anyone about the abuse, and she would never see her mother again.





Davies moved to Australia in 1974, but in 2008 two of his victims, whilst were holidaying in the country, decided to confront him and report him to the local authorities.

In August 2010 the Met were granted an arrest warrant for Davies’ extradition and arrest.



On September 28, last year Davies was arrested by the Australian authorities and escorted onto an airplane bound for London where he was met by detectives at Heathrow Airport and charged.



Detective Inspector Tessa Philpott of the Child Abuse Investigation Command, said: 

”When Reginald Davies emigrated to Australia in 1974 he thought that he had left behind not only the UK, but also the horrendous catalogue of abuse he committed against four small children.

“I would imagine he thought his past would never catch up with him and he would never face justice, but thanks to the bravery of his victims, his past did catch up with him, and today he faces justice.

“I hope that this will go some way towards helping his victims whose lives have been blighted by him, to move forward in some small way.

“I also hope that his extradition from the other side of the world and conviction give other victims the confidence to come forward and report their experiences to the police.”

Davies was convicted of: attempted rape of a child under the age of 12, between1949 and 1953; indecent assault of a child under the age of 15, between 1949 and 1956.



Attempted rape of a child under the age of 12, during 1955; indecent assault of a child under the age of 14, between 1953 and 1957; indecent assault of a child under the age of 14, between 1953 and 1957.

Indecent assault of a child under the age of 14, between 1953 and 1957; indecent assault of a child under the age of 14, between 1953 and 1957; indecent assault of a child under the age of 14, between 1953 and 1957.

Indecent assault of a child under the age of 14, between 1953 and1957; inciting a child under the age of 12 to commit an act of gross indecency between 1965 and 1968; rape of a child under the age of 12, between 1968 and 1969.

Rape of a child under the age of 12, between 1970 and 1971 and indecent assault of a child under during 1973.