Overdose patient confessed to being child sex offender

The offences came to light when Raymond Dimmock was admitted to Pontefract General Infirmary on April 17 last year having taken Paracetamol, Leeds Crown Court was told yesterday.

A House Officer attended to make a psychiatric assessment and saw in his admission notes he had confessed to sexually abusing young girls, saying he had downloaded indecent images of children which he used to get aroused.

Sharon Beattie, prosecuting, said Dimmock said that was the reason for his overdose because he felt he could not cope any more with what he had done in the past.

The doctor took advice from the Medical Defence Union and then contacted the police. They traced the girls concerned, none of whom had previously reported anything to the authorities.

Dimmock, 49, of Leatham Crescent, Featherstone, was jailed for a total of six years after admitting nine charges of indecent assault and four of indecency with a child involving three different girls in the 1990s or early this century.

Miss Beattie said all spoke about him showing them pornographic films and that the abuse had begun when they were about seven.

One girl was sexually abused when she visited Dimmock’s home, the other two mainly when he babysat for them at their homes while their parents were at work.

They were told to keep quiet about what was happening and one was told boys would not like her if she did not do it. The abuse stopped when they got older.

One girl received a phone call from him apologising shortly before he took the overdose.

John Dunning, for Dimmock, said he realised there would be a lengthy prison sentence but had finally faced “his demons.” He accepted in reports that he needed help to prevent him reoffending.

Jailing Dimmock and ordering him to register indefinitely as a sex offender, Judge Gillian Matthews QC said: “This was a truly appalling catalogue of offending including making them watch pornographic films.”

“You used the opportunity when they were in your care to satisfy your sexual desires because you did not have an adult partner. This was a gross breach of trust and corruption of young and innocent children whose lives could have been ruined forever.”

She said he had moved on from one girl to the next using threats to secure their silence. All three had tried to put that behind them and she accepted the offences might never have come to light but for the overdose.