Child sex attacker sentenced to seven years

Peter Ogden, sex attacker sentenced to seven years in prison.

A sex offender who subjected three children to 10 counts of sexual abuse has been sentenced to seven years in jail and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Peter Ogden, from Shawclough, stood trial at Bolton Crown Court last month where a jury decided his fate. He has spent the last 42 days in custody before he was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court this afternoon (Thursday 30 April).

The 55-year-old, of Aberdeen Gardens, abused three victims between 1990 and 1996, who were all aged 10 or under at the time.

Sentencing Ogden, Judge Elliot Knopf said: "The effect that your actions had on these girls, who are now young women, was all too evident at the trial. It is clear that this ordeal caused much stress, anxiety, shame and confusion, as well as hurt and humiliation, arising from what you subjected them to as little girls who were too young to appreciate what was happening or what they should do about it."

Some family members of the victim were in court to hear the sentencing and the Judge said to them: "I only hope that today will serve to draw a line under this tragic set of events and that you will now be able to move forward in your lives."

The family of one of the victims released the following statement to Rochdale Online: "As a family we do not feel it appropriate to comment on the intimacies of the trial and, especially as it has now run its course, we wish to close the door on this issue and move on; something that we were very close to being able to do after the trial of the defendant six weeks ago.

"We wish to praise the excellent work of Greater Manchester Police in terms of the investigation, support and preparation of the case, the representation in court by the Crown Prosecution Service and also the support given by other professional support agencies.

"As parents we acknowledge the tremendous courage and bravery of our daughter in deciding and then continuing to take this issue to court after long-term personal trauma, and also whilst under continual pressure whilst it took its course. We also praise the courage and bravery of the two other victims whose evidence contributed to a more robust case at court and we hope now that they too will be able to bring closure on the situation."

Ogden's first victim was aged just eight-years-old when the abuse started in 1990. The young girl would often stay over at his house and would play wrestle with Ogden, but he took advantage of her and sexually abused her.

He befriended his second victim in 1994, when she was nine or 10-years-old, by offering her chewing gum in return for a kiss. This escalated over the following year into sexual abuse but the victim felt too scared to speak out.

The third victim was aged just seven or eight-years-old in 1995 or 1996. Again, Ogden would pretend to be playing with the young girl but would actually be sexually abusing her.

Detective Sergeant Mike Armstrong-Porter, from the Child Protection Unit at Rochdale, said: "Over a sustained period of time, Ogden abused the trust these young girls and their families put in him and sexually assaulted them.

"Frequently he would disguise his abuse as a 'game'.

"He made his victims feel as if they had no choice but to endure his abuse. They were too young and too scared to speak out, and although his actions made them feel physically sick, they felt as if they had to put up with it. No-one should ever be made to feel like that and the fact they did makes Ogden's actions absolutely unforgivable.

"I am glad he is now behind bars where he cannot hurt anyone else."