Parish Councillor Jailed For Molesting Schoolgirl Three Decades Ago

A Lincoln parish councillor, whose Facebook contact with a woman he abused as a child three decades ago backfired when she went to the police, has been jailed for two years.

Engineer David Anthony Swinton, 70, of Bath Road, Bracebridge Heath denied sneaking into the girl's room during the night when she was aged between eight and eleven years-old and touching her between her legs over a four-year period.

He tried to derail a potential prosecution by presenting himself to the woman online as a: “Friendly face from the past,” but this simply triggered her complaint to the police.

He was found guilty at London's Harrow Crown Court of two sample counts of of indecently assaulting the complainant in the 1980's.

Jack Talbot, defending, told the court : "There are concerns about his ability to cope with a custodial environment.

"He is devastated by the verdict – it's the most devastating moment of his life. He is in a traumatic state."

Recorder William Featherby QC told Swinton : "You went to the girl's room, stood by her bed, where she was in the top bunk and reached under her night dress, not more than a hand full of times.

"Now in her late 30s she has suffered considerable distress but she was already an unhappy child.

"These are serious offences, including a breach of trust, by exploiting your dominant position, with a helpless victim, exploiting her silence. She suffered in silence."

Swinton was also made subject to a five year Sexual Harm Prevent Order and he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

The court was told the complainant was reluctant to report Swinton, who lived in Harrow at the time, because his family was so well-respected locally, with his civil servant wife Jane sitting on the local council, and his mother-in-law a former mayor of the borough.

Father-of-three Swinton, who lived at Northumberland Road, Harrow, molested the girl at the address, often telling her to: “Shhh,” and be quiet and assuring her she was a: “Good girl.”

Prosecutor Mr. Toby Fitzgerald told the jury the girl regularly slept overnight at the defendant's house, occupying the top bunk of bunk-beds while her younger sister slept below.

“While the children were in his house he took the opportunity to indecently assault the elder sister, touching her indecently and between her legs in particular.

“The defendant would bath them both and throughout this period the defendant would come into the bedroom, approach the girl, and touch her, both over and under her knickers.

“Sometimes he would come in and pretend to tuck the girls in.

“This happened very regularly and the defendant showed a lack of boundaries, when at breakfast and in front of his family he said of the girl. 'She is a woman now'.

“She remembers thinking the defendant was trying to legitimise what he was doing and normalise his sexual activity with a child.

“The abuse ended when she stopped staying at the Swinton's home in 1988,” added Mr. Fitzgerald, explaining the girl told her mother what had happened approximately a year later.

“Her mother seemed sympathetic, but no complaint was made and the girl felt worried that she would not be believed.”

Some time later the complainant was walking past Swinton's house and he waved at her. “She stuck her finger up at him and he would have known the abuse was not forgotten and she was still angry.”

Out of the blue she received a Facebook message from Swinton on June 9, 2013, asking how she was.

“She looked at his page and the photographs of his grandchildren and was angry and upset that she had been contacted.

“Why did the defendant contact her? What was the motivation?” added Mr. Fitzgerald.

“The last few years have become increasingly uncomfortable for sex offenders and the Crown say this defendant wanted to head off any complaint against himself by presenting himself as a friendly face from the past and run with this change in history.

“He wanted to allay those fears so he could continue to live his life, but that was a miscalculation and it rekindled her upset and distress and she contacted the police.”

Swinton was arrested on December 11, 2013. “He absolutely denied any sexual conduct.”


The defendant sits on the Bracebridge Heath parish council and is the vice-chairman of Planning, Lighting and Roads and Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes Committee.