A man has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a teenage boy in Hinckley in the 1980’s.
Malcolm Gledhill-Came pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault on a boy under 16 years of age at Leicester Crown Court on Wednesday (18 May).
The 69-year-old was given a two-year prison sentence which will run concurrently to 12-year prison sentence he is already serving.
In 2020, a man contacted Leicestershire Police to report that while he worked at a newsagent in Hinckley in the early 1980’s he was indecently touched by Gledhill-Came, who was the manager of the store at the time.
A police investigation followed which included Gledhill-Came being interviewed. He denied the offences.
Charges were subsequently authorised and he pleaded guilty to all of the offences at court.
Detective Constable Alex Wood, the investigating officer, said: “Gledhill-Came was convicted in 2020 of the rape of a teenage boy in the late 1970’s who also worked in a newsagent with him in the West Midlands. He is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for this crime.
“Given the similarities in both the cases, there could well be other children who were also abused but haven’t reported the matter to police so we would urge them to get on touch. We have specially trained officers who can support you through any report made.
“I appreciate the difficulty for some people in talking about such experiences which happened many years ago. The victim in this case has been incredibly brave in reliving the ordeal he suffered and I am thankful for him that Gledhill-Came has finally accepted responsibility for the crimes he committed against him.”
There are a number of different agencies who are able to offer independent help and support to victims of sexual offences in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
Further information on these services and details can be found by visiting https://www.leics.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/rsa/rape-and-sexual-assault/
Further information about child abuse can be found by visiting https://www.leics.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/caa/child-abuse
The victim has released the following statement:
“I was a shy and naive teenage boy when this man repeatedly molested me. Conflict wasn’t in my nature and I wouldn’t say boo to a goose. In retrospect, it seems obvious that he knew this; sensed this and honed in on it, like a predator does. I was a lone schoolboy working among a staff of eight or ten older, middle-aged women - again, with hindsight it feels obvious that I had been specifically ‘targeted’ and subsequently become groomed.
“Although I was a green young teenager, and frozen with fear when he molested me, nevertheless something inside me knew that this was vile and wrong, and I was able to repel him and resist him from going any further than he did.
“Obviously I reflected on things a lot over the years – the decades - but the only people I felt comfortable confiding in were my best friend and my wife. I told them of it episodically during the 1990s and beyond.
"Then one day in late 2020, I simply picked up the phone, rang the police and told them my story.
"It had taken me 40 years, but it was a natural and simple process, and I remember smiling talking to the police because it felt good to offload this weight and to tell the truth of what had happened. More than anything I felt relieved.
“Over 40 years I had built a career and a family, and now I realised it was the time to do the right thing - to reveal the details of something I had lived with, with a quiet sense of shame for all that time. The trigger was a simple song on the radio - a song that brought the events of 1980 crashing back into my life, but as an older, wiser, stronger man of experience who had overcome much adversity to thrive and to love.
"When I picked up the phone, I had no idea if this man was dead or alive. Eighteen months later he has admitted his crime against me and has been punished with two years in prison. That’s good. It’s all I really wanted. Just some natural justice.”