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| Sex abuse: Reginald Davies jailed for 1949-1973 offences | Sex abuse: Reginald Davies jailed for 1949-1973 offences |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A former serviceman and miner who sexually assaulted four girls in south Wales between 1949 and 1973 has been jailed for 11 years. | A former serviceman and miner who sexually assaulted four girls in south Wales between 1949 and 1973 has been jailed for 11 years. |
| Reginald Davies, 78, was convicted at Kingston Crown Court in London of 13 offences, including rape of a girl under the age of 12. | Reginald Davies, 78, was convicted at Kingston Crown Court in London of 13 offences, including rape of a girl under the age of 12. |
| His victims, who were aged between nine and 16, were assaulted in the Caerphilly county borough area. | His victims, who were aged between nine and 16, were assaulted in the Caerphilly county borough area. |
| They were at the court and sobbed as the sentence was read out. | They were at the court and sobbed as the sentence was read out. |
| The Metropolitan Police said the case involved the oldest charges to be heard in a UK court. | |
| Davies, who served with the Royal Engineers and the Royal Dragoons, committed the offences when he was aged between 15 and 39. | Davies, who served with the Royal Engineers and the Royal Dragoons, committed the offences when he was aged between 15 and 39. |
| He was arrested in July last year at his home in Australia before being extradited a couple of months later. | |
| He claimed in court the four women were lying and "in collusion". | |
| Judge Susan Tapping described Davies's claim that his victims were lying as "nothing more than the wriggling of a cowardly man unable to accept that the past had caught up with him". | |
| She said the victims had found the experience of giving evidence "embarrassing and intrusive", and praised their integrity. | |
| She told Davies: "Their courage both individually and together shone through in this courtroom. | |
| "I hope this light will ease their burdens because none of this was their fault. | |
| "You are the one who must now face your day of reckoning. Maybe you thought you were safe from justice half way around the world, but you were not." | |
| Davies had moved to Australia in 1974. | |
| 'Confused and damaged' | |
| Judge Tapping said his crimes were "utterly depraved". | |
| "You left behind confused and damaged adults and children who grew up with the shadow of what you had done to them haunting them all their lives," she said. | |
| During the trial, Hanna Llewellyn-Waters, prosecuting, said Davies "preyed on the innocence" of the four girls, leaving them to carry the burden for the rest of their lives. | During the trial, Hanna Llewellyn-Waters, prosecuting, said Davies "preyed on the innocence" of the four girls, leaving them to carry the burden for the rest of their lives. |
| "You relied on their fear that they would not be believed and told them that they would be taken away from everything they loved," she added. | "You relied on their fear that they would not be believed and told them that they would be taken away from everything they loved," she added. |
| Davies was confronted by two of his victims in 2008 while they were on holiday in Australia. | |
| A third victim later came forward to police, who found the fourth woman following an investigation. | |
| Davies was arrested last July at his home in Wanneroo on Australia's west coast and extradited in September last year. | |
| He was found guilty of two charges of child rape, two of attempted rape, eight of indecent assault and one count of indecency with a child. | He was found guilty of two charges of child rape, two of attempted rape, eight of indecent assault and one count of indecency with a child. |
| He was cleared of one charge of child rape and one charge of attempted rape. | He was cleared of one charge of child rape and one charge of attempted rape. |
| Ahead of sentencing, Mark Kimsey, defending, said the case had a devastating effect on Davies's wife of almost 50 years. | |
| In her sentencing remarks, Judge Tapping said: "In a very different way she is your final victim. | |
| "She must return to Australia and lead a lonely existence." |