Actor jailed for three decade old rape attack (From Croydon Guardian)

Actor jailed for three decade old rape attack

4:21pm Friday 16th January 2009 in News

An actor from Croydon was jailed for ten-and-a-half years today for rape and other sex abuse of a young girl dating back almost 30 years.

Ben Gaule was told by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court that letters he had written to the court showed he had no real understanding of what he had done.

In one, he had stated: "People get over abuse."

Judge Philip Statman told the 69-year-old "jobbing actor", of South Norwood, Croydon: "You are full of self-justification and now your crimes have caught up with you."

The court was told that the offences dated back to the mid-1970s when the girl who lived in Sevenoaks was aged just seven. Gaule had raped her.

The victim, now in her late 30s, described Gaule, who pleaded guilty to three charges of rape, one of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child as "frightening and volatile".

Janice Brennan, defending, said Gaule found it extremely difficult to talk about what happened.

"He finds it deeply embarrassing," she said. "He accepts he raped her. Any sexual abuse of a child is an absolute disgrace. He is a lonely man and alone."

Gaule told his victim in a letter: "I am writing to you to say how sorry I am for the way I treated you. What I did was terrible. For me to carry on all these years as if nothing has happened is just as bad."

Miss Brennan said Gaule had "lost his good name forever and rightly so".

Judge Statman said Gaule at first treated the abuse as a game in order to win the victim's confidence and cooperation.

"She had no one to turn to," he said. "She was left with the consequences of what you did to her for some 25 years. It has had profound effect on her and her marriage.

"She knows she has been believed and, hopefully, that will assist her with regard to issues of closure."

The judge told Gaule: "You were of good character. You have been a jobbing actor, among other things, all your working life."

Gaule was disqualified from working with children and placed on the sex offenders' register for life.